Food supplement treatment for HIV patients

Accra, Oct. 22, GNA- A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Miracle Rock Foundation, (MIROF) in association with some foreign companies, is to introduce a food supplement package called V1, produced in Thailand, into the country for HIV patients.

The product would help in boosting the immune system of persons living with the disease.

Reverend Charles Abban, President of MIROF, told the press at the opening of a two-day conference on HIV/AIDS in Africa being organised by MIROF on Wednesday in Accra.

He said the product would cost between 20 to 30 dollars for each package and would be available to anyone who is Interested.

Rev. Abban told the conference, attended by experts and resource persons from Ghana and Togo, that lack of supplies of good drinking water and other social amenities was hindering efforts to deal with AIDS.

"People are left in their ignorance to think that AIDS is a cursed disease from the devil."

Prof. Sakyi Awuku Amoa, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, identified stigmatisation and the lack of anti-retro-viral drugs as the two key impediments to the national response on HIV/AIDS.

He said the main objective of the national response, involved the adoption of a multi-sectoral approach to deal with the pandemic and reduce the current prevalence rate of 3.4 percent to minimise the impact of the disease on health, education, industry, the economy and the society as a whole.

Prof. Amoa commended the churches and Moslem Councils for their supportive role, saying they "have shown a high commitment to the fight against the epidemic."

He also commended MIROF for the plans to introduce the food supplement.

Mr. Moses Dani Baah, the Deputy Minister of Health, said recent statistics on HIV/AIDS in Africa was worrying. "Our continent has a very high HIV prevalence rate of 8.9 per cent as compared to the world average of 1.7 percent is currently, the leading cause of death on the continent," he added.

He said if nothing was done about the situation, the goals of the Millennium Development aimed at halving poverty levels by 2015, would never be achieved.

"The agenda is big and unfinished, and the constraints are many. Unfortunately there are very few success stories the continent can boast of," he noted.

He said there were still problems such as the shortage of condoms, stigmatization, expensive drugs and poor health systems to deal with to control the spread of the pandemic.