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HEALTH

Gomoa West prepares AIDS workplace policy

The Gomoa West District AIDS committee, in collaboration with heads of departments, have drawn up an AIDS workplace policy to guide departments to sensitize their workers and people they often com into contact with.

Date Created : 11/11/2009 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : GNA

Mr. Eric Akobeng, District HIV and AIDS Focal Person, said 90 HIV cases recorded in the district during the last quarter of this year should be a concern for all in the district to step up the sensitization programme.

He said fighting the pandemic must not be seen as a responsibility of the AIDS Committee alone and urged everybody to show concern.

Mr. Akobeng said the pandemic had a toll on every sector of the economy and called for efforts to tackle it through a multi-sector approach.

He urged researchers to research into the effect of the pandemic on the sectors to make people know what actually the nation loses through HIV and AIDS.

That, he said, would make the authorities to step up their programmes for the formal sector of the economy.

Mr. Akobeng, who is also the District Budget analyst, said stigmatization and discrimination were making people having the virus to hide their status and some of them infect more people.

He urged employers to protect the confidentiality of their employees who had the virus.

A lady with the virus advised her colleagues who are on anti retroviral drugs against taking any other drug without the permission of their doctors.

The lady, who said she was infected by her husband about four years ago, said they had two children who are also HIV positive and are expecting their third child in about a month\'s time.

She said they live happily as a family and did whatever married couples do.

She advised people with the virus to reveal their status for them to get support from the Ghana AIDS Commission and other donor agencies.

The lady said those who hid their status often died earlier and in deplorable conditions.