Ghana should develop positive attitude towards good health- Minister

Accra, Nov. 3, GNA - Mrs Juliana Azumah, Minister of Women and Children Affairs, on Wednesday called for the urgent need for Ghanaians to be health conscious to facilitate a positive attitude towards national development.

She said there is a fundamental need to shift positively from health seeking behaviours towards service integration and couple screening to broaden the scope of Ghanaians. Mrs Azumah made the call when she launched this year's World AIDS Day in Accra.

The Day, which falls on December 1, would be on the theme: "Universal Access and Human Rights, Action Now."

The one- month celebration will focus on the virtual elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV by 2015. The Minister explained that Ghana continue to face increasing numbers of new infections, a growing death toll and massive social and economic costs in dealing with the pandemic.

"We must ensure that everyone feels responsible for shaping the national response and contributing to the achievement of the goals and targets we have set," she added.

The World Health Organisation records indicate that out of 15.7 million women living with HIV worldwide, 1.4 million gave the birth in 2008 and 90 per cent of these pregnant women live in the sub Saharan Africa and in the absence of any intervention, about 30 to 40 per cent of infants born to pregnant women with HIV will become infected.

Mrs Azumah noted that to achieve the less than five per cent transmission and attainment of the health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (4,5, and 6), sustained political will and donor commitment as well as Ghana's own collective efforts would be required to accelerate and catalyse the implementation of quality and evidence based HIV programmes.

She pledged her Ministry's support to engage political leaders and decision makers to discuss targets and priority actions to ensure the total elimination of mother to child transmission. Dr Leo Zekeng, UNAIDS Country Co-ordinator said without action and respect for human rights, the world cannot get over HIV. He said the latest figures indicated that less than 30 per cent of

HIV-positive pregnant women received the necessary treatment in Ghana and had given birth to negative babies.

He called for the need to integrate programmes which will prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies into broader reproductive health agenda.

Dr Angela El-Adas, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, said in response to the numerous challenges, the Commission in partnership with the it's stakeholders and partners developed a National Strategic Plan for HIV/ AIDS for 2011-2015.

The Plan aims at directing the implementation of the national response to HIV/ AIDS for the next five years. The Plan will take into consideration the unique challenges that Ghana faces in addressing the HIV pandemic.

"The efforts for fighting the epidemic need to be sustained and scaled-up to maintain and eventually reverse trends. It is for this reason why the Plan has set ambitious targets which aims at achieving universal access as well as the MDGs 4, 5 and 6.

Dr El-Adas expressed her Commission's commitment in partnering with the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders, especially political leaders to realise the objective and targets of the national strategic plan.