Churches and Mosques urged to support PLHIV

The Director of Mathew 25, a Non-Governmental HIV care center, Monsignor Bobby Benson has called on leaders of churches and Mosques, to set up units in their facilities to mobilize food and other resources to support and care for People Living With HIV(PLHIV) in their institutions.

He explained that the challenge facing many people on the Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) was food because they required sufficient food when they are on the treatment.

Monsignor Benson was speaking at the observation of this year’s World AIDS Day in the Eastern Region at Akim Awisa.

He appealed to priests and Imams not to disclose the medical conditions of PLHIV to others when they approach them for spiritual support.

The Director explained that when PLHIV have confidence in their religious leaders that they would not disclose their medical status to others , they would always came near them for the needed support to enable them lead more satisfying lives.

He also appealed to the religious organizations to set up scholarship schemes to support the education of AIDS orphans to ensure that they get education.

The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Ms Mavis Ama Frimpong observed that despite the achievements made by the Eastern Region in the reduction of the HIV prevalence, there are still challenges in terms of accessing HIV testing and counseling services, discrimination and stigmatization and reduction of HIV related deaths in adults and children.

Despite the various interventions put in, children in the Region are born with HIV and there are challenges in the formulation of ART drugs for them, some parents who are HIV positive do not send their children to health facility and sometimes there are challenges in identifying children exposed to HIV.

Ms Frimpong said all these challenges are threats to the goal of the country of establishing an HIV free generation and therefore called on all well-meaning Ghanaians to join hands with the Ghana Health Service, Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) and the development partners of the country to end the spread of HIV.

She said under the strategic plan of the Region, between 2016 and 2020, the Region would focused on care and treatment of PLHIV, elimination of transmission from mother to child, target behavioral change, strengthening the supply chain and ensuring the availability of drugs for treatment .

The Eastern Regional Technical Coordinator of the Technical Support Unit of the GAC, Ms Golda Asante said the theme for the celebration of this year’s World AIDS Day globally is “Ending the AIDS Epidemic as part of the Sustainable Goals” and the celebration in Ghana has adopted the sub-theme “Fast Track: Meeting the health needs of children towards an HIV-free generation”.

She said next year, the GAC would launch the United Nations AIDS target of 90-90-90 by 2020, which expect by 2020, 90 percent of Ghana’s population should be expected to know their HIV status, 90 percent of PLHIV are put on anti-retroviral drugs and the 90 percent of the PLHIV put on the drugs have suppressed HIV load.

She said the Commission would also work with the models of hope to help reduce stigmatization and discrimination against PLHIV.

Ms Asante appealed to traditional rulers, leaders of religious organizations and the civil society organizations to champion the 90-90-90 campaign after the launching.

Nana Kwarteng Karkari III, Akim Awisahene called for inculcation of education on HIV/AIDS into the school curriculum for all children to learn about it now that the media campaign on the country’s response to the AIDS pandemic has gone down.