Employers urged to implement policies to care for TB, HIV patients

Accra, May 4, GNA - Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, on Monday urged private and public enterprises to implement policies that would provide comprehensive care for employees and their families who are affected with HIV and TB in Ghana. She stressed that workers who were affected by the diseases should not be secluded from their workplaces but rather given support that was necessary for their condition.

The Minister, who was speaking at the launch of HIV/TB Workplace Project in Accra at a function held the Registrar-General's Department, urged workers to fight against the diseases and adopt the habit of protecting themselves. "HIV has no national boundaries and is no respecter of the rich. Therefore no country can afford to ignore the disease," she said.

Mrs Mould-Iddrisu urged private and public organizations to create awareness about these diseases and address issues of stigmatization affecting the HIV/AIDS patients. She expressed her gratitude to the initiators of the project for their effort in reducing the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS to about 1.9 per cent from 2.1 per cent.

Dr Elizabeth Leiss, Programme Manager of German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) HIV/TB Project, said the workplace programme which started last year would enable almost 1,000 employees of the Ministry of Justice alongside their families to benefit from free counselling and anti-retroviral drugs and condoms at their workplaces. She noted that workplace focal persons had already been appointed and trained for all the agencies in peer education as well as first aid. "We would deal with the prevention and diagnosis of HIV/TB, treatment, care and support of infected and affected employees and their close family members and enable a non-discriminative environment in the framework of an HIV/TB policy," she added.

Prof. Sakyi Awuku Amoah, Director-General of Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), called on Ghanaians to work together towards protecting the human resource of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General's Department through the HIV/AIDS/ workplace project.