Dr Magdalene Bakari, the Lead Specialist for Health Services of Gold Fields Ghana, has stated that stigmatisation discouraged people from getting tested and seeking treatment for HIV.

She said many people feared being judged, rejected, and labelled, so they would not attempt to go for a screening exercise when organised in their communities.

Dr Bakari noted that stigmatising people living with HIV hurts and hinders efforts at controlling the disease in the country and appealed to Ghanaians to stop it.

Commemorating this year’s World AIDS Day on the theme “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response,” the lead specialist said, “HIV/AIDS is not airborne, we can share a bed and eat together with those affected, let us drop the stigmatisation.”

She said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had earmarked December 01 to annually observe World AIDS Day, but at Gold Fields, they felt a day was not enough to educate the public on this important topic, so they decided to use the month of December for it.

She said they started with the workers at the Tarkwa Mine and later proceeded to the Damang Mine, realised they needed to include their host communities, especially the youth in the Senior High Schools, who were at a higher risk because of their sexual development stage.

The team, therefore, extended the programme to the Huni-Valley SHS, and even organised a voluntary screening for them to help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Western Region.

She explained that Gold Fields Ghana and the National AIDS Control Programme teamed up in the exercise to reach out to more people in their host communities.

“Now HIV/AIDS has become one of our chronic illnesses like diabetes and hypertension. If you come out to test and it is positive, you begin the treatment, so you can live a normal life,” she said.

“If we do not detect it early, it progresses to AIDS, and when it reaches that stage, management becomes difficult. Let us do away with the fear and go for the test,” Dr Bakari said.

Dr Felicia Amihere, the Western Regional HIV Coordinator, added that because people were not ill like before, some thought HIV/AIDS was not there anymore, adding, “Many people are still getting infected with the virus.

She encouraged everyone to protect themselves during sex to reduce the HIV transmission in the Western Region and the country.

Some students told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the detailed education by Gold Fields Ghana and its partner had helped them understand HIV/AIDS issues better, and they expressed appreciation to the Company.