HIV/AIDS draft Policy before Parliament in March

Accra, Feb. 14, GNA- HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's) draft Policy to protect persons living with HIV/AIDS and address issues affecting them is ready for Parliament.

The draft policy, when passed into law would also put in measures to combat any further spread of the disease and reduce the current prevalence rate of 3.4 percent to the barest minimum.

Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the draft was ready and would be presented to the Minister of Health, Dr Kwaku Afriyie to be forwarded to Cabinet for approval.

The policy will address issues such as behavioural change communication, blood screen and testing, home self testing, treatment, mother to child transmission, young people and HIV/AIDS, gender and AIDS and legal and ethical issues.

Wilfully and negligence transmission, the use of traditional medicine, HIV/AIDS education in schools, human rights, treatment, care and research have all been captured in the policy.

Other areas included the creation of conducive environment through advocacy, to ensure sustained political commitment and support for effective action against HIV/AIDS/STI's have all been captured in the policy.

Prof. Amoa said the policy drafted two years ago and, should have been presented to Parliament in August last year, had some lapses and was presented to stakeholders for recommendations.

Prof. Amoa said anti retroviral drugs, care for orphans and home based care were some of the issues raised by stakeholders and these had been addressed in the draft.

On the issue of anti retroviral drugs, Professor Amoa said 6,000 patients would be put on the therapy for the next two years in four selected government hospitals after which it would be extended to all the hospitals in Ghana.

The selected hospitals are Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching hospitals, Atua Government Hospital and Saint Martin hospital in the Eastern region.

He said government had highly subsidised the anti retroviral drugs making the patients pay less adding, "under normal circumstances, a patient should have paid 600 dollars but now pays 50,000 cedis".

Prof. Amoa noted that the policy would also encourage employers and the society to have positive attitude towards people living with the disease and keep them in productive employment for as long as possible. He said the policy when passed into law would ensure that access to social and economic opportunities remained open to people living with AIDS without any discrimination or stigmatisation.

Prof. Amoa called for the commitment and co-operation of all stakeholders including the media to ensure that the policy was translated into action to fight the HIV/AIDS, which was depleting the productive workforce as well as the reproductive segment of the population.