Public cautioned against tagging visibly lean persons with AIDS

Anomabo(C./R), Sept. 11, GNA - The Mfantseman District Coordinator of HIV/AIDS Miss Christine Antor has cautioned Ghanaians against the practice of tagging visibly lean persons with the AIDS disease. Miss Antor, a Principal Nursing Officer said the status of HIV/AIDS patients could only be determined through medical test, adding that there are other diseases which show similar symptoms as AIDS. "We should be careful we do not drive our sick neighbours into their graves earlier by associating them with the diseases they may not be suffering from," she said.

She sounded the caution at an HIV/AIDS workshop for 30 peer educators organised by Fed Kastle Promotions, a Saltpond based non-governmental organisation (NGO) at Anomabo in the Central Region, with funds provided by Ghana AIDS Commission.

Miss Antor urged members of the trained peer groups to regard their selection as a call to national duty and to be devoted to championing the fight of the pandemic.

She urged the participants to be polite in delivering the message to the people and advised female students to be content with what their parents provide for them and desist from soliciting help from men who could take advantage of them and infest them with the HIV virus. Mr Francis Ejaku Donkoh, Executive Director of the NGO exhorted the participants to embark on house to house education to bring the anti-AIDS message to the doorsteps of the people.

Mr Ejaku Donkoh, a member of Mfantseman District Assembly said the organisation had put in place a mechanism to monitor the work of field workers and said hard working members would be rewarded. 11 Sept. 03