Laws to criminalize keeping AIDS patients in prayer camps and shrines?

Koforidua, Dec. 4, GNA - The Eastern Regional Coordinator of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), Dr Sampson B. Ofori, has called for laws to prosecute religious leaders who keep AIDS patients in their prayer camps and shrines until they are almost dead before referring them to hospitals.

He said there had been instances where some people who had AIDS but were brought to hospital early and put on the anti-retroviral therapy have recovered and are walking as strong persons. Dr Ofori was speaking at a two-day capacity building workshop for Regional and District HIV and AIDS monitoring and evaluation teams in the Eastern Region at Koforidua on Monday.

He said people continued to send their relations suffering from HIV/AIDS to prayer camps and shrines because of wrong belief that they had been cursed and needed spiritual healing. Dr Ofori said the Eastern Region recorded 5,916 new HIV cases in 2006 and by September 2007, the region has recorded 4,322 new HIV cases. The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Ofosu Asamoah, said the regional prevalence rate of 4.9 per cent, which is the highest in the country, showed that more needed to be done if the region was to reduce the spread of the virus.

He said if efforts were not made to halt the spread of the virus in the region, it could destroy the human resource base and the few economic gains that had been made.

Mr Napoleon Graham of the World Health Organization (WHO) said if the rate of HIV infection in the country was not checked, it could threaten and even reverse some of the important gains made in different sectors of the economy.

He said it was in that vein that the WHO with funding from the Netherlands Embassy was working at integrating care and support of those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS into the decentralized HIV/AIDS response agenda of the country. The Eastern Regional Focal Person on HIV/AIDS, Ms Golda Asante, called on people working on HIV/AIDS activities in the region to restructure their messages to ensure that the people change their sexual habits. 04 Dec 07