PEP to be administered on health workers

Mampong, (Ash), May 18, GNA - Dr. Emmanuel Ahiable, Medical Superintendent of the Mampong General Hospital, has announced that a Post Exposure Prophylactics (PEP) to prevent HIV transmission from patient to health worker, would soon be administered on all health personnel throughout the country.

He told GNA at Mampong on Friday that the PEP was an anti-viral drug, which would be administered to health workers within 24 hours of contact with people with HIV, to prevent personnel from contracting the disease. Dr. Ahiable said that all pregnant women in Ghana received routine counselling and tested for HIV/AIDS, and those who tested positive would be given drugs to prevent mother to child transmission. He said that HIV/AIDS patients whose body defence system (CD4 counts) was less that 350 were given Anti Retroviral Drugs to prolong their lifespan.

Dr. Ahiable said the hospital managed people with opportunistic infections like tuberculosis (TB) and other skin infections adding that people with HIV were susceptible to T.B. infection.