AIDS not genetic or inherited - Focal Person

Gomoa Asebu (C/R), Sept 20, GNA - Ghanaians have been advised not to refuse marriage to relations of people living with HIV/AIDS since the disease is not genetic to be inherited.

The advise was given by the Gomoa District Focal Person on HIV/AIDS, Mr John Kobina Yamoah, at a capacity building workshop for the Gomoa Asebu-Pomadze Area Council executives at Asebu near Winneba. He noted that even though it could be transmitted from mother to child it did not make it genetic for people to frown on the relations of family of people living with HIV/AIDS. The refusal to marry from the family of people living with the disease only added to the stigmatisation of those infected with the disease.

The workshop was organised by the Friends of the Earth, a Community-Based Organisation (CBO) with sponsorship from the Ghana AIDS Commission and the Gomoa District Assembly. It was based on the findings of a baseline survey conducted in the District with the support of the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) about two years ago to assess HIV/AIDS situation in the District.

Mr Yamoah said that the research revealed that about 60 per cent of the youth had indulged in anti marital sex, which compelled the District AIDS Committee to involve Town and Area Council executives. He advised the participants to include HIV/AIDS in their programmes, especially during festivals to remind the people on the dangers of the disease.

Similar workshops would be organised in all the 14 Town and Area Councils in the District.

Miss Comfort Morgan, District Information Officer and a member of the District AIDS Committee, called on parents to educate their children especially the girls to guard against the advances of men who would like to take advantage of their youthful beauty. Mr John Kweku Donkor, Chairman of the CBO, called for the intensification of sex education to make children know both the positive and the negative implications of sex.