General News of Sunday, 6 June 2004
Source: GNA
Tuberculosis AND HIV/AIDS
Accra, June 5, GNA- West African Governments should start implementing policies aimed at preventing Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, by studying the situation, apply preventive measures, and looking for effective mechanism, to step up efforts of curbing the spread of the disease.
The TB-HIV/AIDS, which is a major health and social problem worldwide, has also brought about adverse impacts on economic and social development of many countries.
The diseases are partly spread by sex workers (prostitutes) who ignore all safe measures and laid down regulation in their trade for the sake of money to go in with "raw" in all aspects of sex. Since the first report on AIDS patient in Ghana was published, the number of HIV carriers and AIDS patients has increased thus increasing the death rate in the country. So far, Many Ghanaians have been infected with HIV/AIDS.
Cote d'Ivoire that share common border with Ghana is West African country with the largest HIV/AIDS population. Majority of HIV carriers and AIDS patients in Ghana now are young people who had returned from some of the highly infected countries where they went to seek greener pastures.
They are now living in the urban areas and currently practicing prostitution for a living and are continuing infecting thousands of innocent people.
West African Governments should therefore, take measures to create public awareness about the disease, crack down on crimes that cause the spreading of HIV, such as drug addiction and prostitution; monitoring the situation carefully; and implementing policies for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
The key to stopping the epidemic in Ghana and some parts of the West African sub-regions is the re-introduction of cultures like "Bragro" of the Akans and Dipo of the Krobos and many others, which protected West African Girls from indulging in sex before marriage, and made them to be ideal women in their communities and states.
Forgetting about foreign cultures would go a long way to protect our young girls from unsafe sex and build in them, good morals thus reducing sexual transmission of HIV-which makes up to 80 per cent of infections. HIV infection like many infectious diseases tends to cluster geographically.
Prevention should therefore target areas where HIV infection is most likely to be initiated or occur.
Ghana has been identified as having a relatively low HIV/AIDS prevalence. This therefore provides an opportunity to prevent further infections and growth of the epidemic thereby providing an example to Africa and the World of how HIV/AIDS could be contained. While the government has to be the leading force in the efforts to control HIV/AIDS, Ghanaians of all walks of life should join hands to control the disease.
West Africa Governments should study international experience and combine it with Africa's own experiences to prevent it.
Really TB-HIV/AIDS is tearing families apart in this country as parents' watch their children and loved ones die before them. It is becoming a global crisis, which Africa had not seen before, leaving about 11 million children below 15 years, without parents.
This figure could grow to 20 million by the end of the Decade and it is hard to comprehend the idea of so many children without parents, without emotional support and love. Yet there is hope, which is within every one of us who takes the time to work together to fight HIV/AIDS. In all over the world there are volunteers willing to share their time, energy, love and their skills to make things a little better for someone else.
Ghana our beloved country is yet to suffer the brunt of the pandemic as Zambia had suffered.
If Kuwait which is a Moslem country and practice Sharia laws and forbids prostitution can detect 1,050 cases of AIDS between 1984 and 2003, then African countries where sex trade laws are not stringent due to economic problems should be careful about the disease and take drastic measures to save its citizens.
In South Africa young women are more vulnerable to HIV infection as about 77 per cent of them are infected with HIV. This, researchers blamed on inadequate awareness of self-protection during sexual behaviours.
Nearly one in every four women aged between 20 and 24 was HIV positive, compared with one in 14 men of the same age.
This gap in infection rates among young men and women is admittedly "huge," and far bigger than anything seen internationally.
At least million people in South Africa were HIV positive or full-blown AIDS patients, making the 45-million-people, one of the hardest-hit nations by HIV/AIDS in the world.
Although condoms were available free of charge at all clinics in South Africa, 31 percent of the youth said they never used any.