Tatale District inaugurates HIV/AIDS Committee

The Tatale/Sangule District Assembly on Tuesday inaugurated a nine-member district AIDS Committee tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that people continued to adhere to best practices that would help curtail the spread of the disease.

Mr Nicholas Waake, Tatale/Sangule District Chief Executive ((DCE) chairs the nine-member committee, which is made up of health experts in the district.

Mr Nicholas Waake said the Committee is a multi-sectorial one that was responsible for HIV and AIDS intervention at the district level.

He said the composition of the membership was based on their technical expertise, which they would use to contribute to the success of the committee, and challenge all of them to take their roles seriously.

Mr Waake reminded members of the committee that Tatale was a border town exposed to easy reception of some of these diseases due to the constant influx of foreign nationals.

He advised members to intensify education on the disease to create HIV and AIDS awareness in the district and that prevention and behavior change communication, monitoring and evaluation among others should be intensified.

He said HIV and AIDS prevalence rate as at December 2013 stands at 1.3 percent while the district prevalence rate stands at 0.01 percent, which according to him was a clear indication that if much effort had been put in place the district could achieve zero per cent infection of the disease.

He indicated that since the inauguration of the Tatale/Sangule District Assembly it had not received any funding from the Ghana AIDS Commission, but relying on the District Assembly contribution through Common Fund to embark on some of the district HIV response initiatives.