Medical Officer Calls For Sustained Media Campaign On AIDS

Dunkwa-On-Offin (Central Region), 3 Nov. A medical practitioner, has called for the sustenance of educational programmes on HIV/AIDS through the media. He said reaching out to a larger number of people with AIDS messages through the newspapers, radio and television "is the surest guarantee to the reduction of HIV/AIDS. Dr. Thomas Agyarko-Poku of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), was speaking at a health education forum organized by the Family Life Education Club (FLEC) at Boa Amponsem Secondary School. Dr. Agyarko-Poku, also chairman of the National Youth Committee of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), said apart from educational programmes on the electronic media, social groups and health-related agencies should use informal and various innovative methods to broaden the scope of people about HIV/AIDS. Dr. Agyarko-Poku described as ''quite frightening'' the rate at which HIV/AIDS is spreading in the country, stressing that about 100,000 persons are currently afflicted. He said national reports, however, put the figure at 20,000 cases but ''this figure merely represents reported cases'', adding ''a greater number of people with the disease have failed to report because of the social stigma attached to it. Appreciate that AIDS is real and actually within the system. Students should therefore resolve to adopt more responsible sexual habits to avoid getting it, he added.