Accra, Nov. 10, GNA - The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), on Tuesday organised voluntary Counselling and Testing for HIV for media personnel as part of activities to usher in this year's World AIDS Day, which falls on December 1.

According to the vice president of the GJA, Mr Affail Monnie, the exercise, which was being conducted by officials of the National AIDS Control Programme and the Ghana AIDS Commission, was under a GJA project: "Using the Media to Create Greater Awareness on HIV and AIDS". HIV/AIDS surfaced in Ghana in 1986 and like all other countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, it has been working hard with support from donor countries, agencies and international organisations to contain the epidemic.

The Organising Secretary of GJA, Mr David Agbenu, said Ghana's fight against HIV and AIDS had been a mixed fortune. Social behavioural traits, especially among the youth, suggested that there was the need to intensify public awareness if the country was to make consistent and sustained progress in stemming the spread of the epidemic, he said.

The Principal Nursing Officer in charge of the Anti-Retroviral Therapy( ART ) clinic at Ridge Hospital, Mrs Mercy Acquah-Hayford, told GNA in an interview that the majority of people in society were reluctant to come for the test for fear of stigmatization. She called on members of the public to come out voluntarily for the test. Mrs Acquah-Hayford said that that excessive drinking and outing were deadly traps for contracting AIDS as that was the way the youth in society were lured into having unprotected sex. "You can't identify an AIDS patient without the test," she said. Mrs Acquah-Hayford said people could contract HIV/AIDS through cuts, blood transfusion and transmission from mother to baby. Mrs Acquah-Hayford said babies who were diagnosed after child birth were treated with drugs. 10 Nov. 09