HIV test should not be mandatory - AIDS Commission

The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has said it was wrong for churches to deny would-be couples marriage blessing on the basis that they have not tested for HIV.

Mr. Kwaku Osei, acting Director of Policy and Planning, said religious leaders must encourage through proper counselling for such individuals to willingly undergo the test.

At a regional dissemination forum for the National HIV and AIDS, STI policy at Takoradi, he said the situation where compulsory testing was a conditionality in Christian marriages was not lawful.

The forum was to educate stakeholders on the revised policy and how it will guide their activities and continue to strengthen evidence-based advocacy, policy change and interventions.

The revised HIV and AIDS, STI policy is guided by the 1992 constitution, governmental policies, international conventions and protocols including the MDGs.

Nana Owusu Boatey, HIV coordinator at the TUC, said no Ghanaian worker should be discriminated against, sacked or refused an employment on the grounds that he or she was HIV positive.