By Lydia Kukua Asamoah, GNA
Accra, Nov. 01, GNA - Communities have been identified as critical partners in the fight against HIV and AIDS and are, therefore, being called upon to join Ghana in the implementation of the national response to the epidemic.
“With every individual belonging to one community or another, be it a community of practice, place, interest, or circumstance, we must identify a part to play effectively in the response,” the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) has said.
Areas where communities could assert their influence include ensuring increased access and easy availability of quality medical care to populations at risk or already infected with HIV, ensuring dissemination of HIV related facts and promoting education on risk reduction behaviours.
Launching the World AIDS Day activities on Friday in Accra, Mr Kyeremeh Atuahene, the Acting Director General of GAC, said the media, as part of the community, had a role to play to help sustain the gains made in the HIV and AIDS response.
The Day, instituted by the United Nations AIDS Programme to inspire solidarity for persons infected and affected by HIV, provide the opportunity for countries to review progress and prepare for the ensuing year.
Ghana’s theme is: “Communities Make a Difference - Help end AIDS,” couched from the global theme: “Communities Make a Difference.”
The Day heralds a series of a month-long activities to be climaxed with a national durbar on December 1 at the International Trade Fair Centre, La, Accra.
Mr Atuahene said the media could help improve on resource mobilization and low publicity, which affected sustainability of HIV programmes, service delivery and advocacy.
He said 2020 is a very important year for the HIV advocacy adding:
“2020 is the milestone of the 90-90-90 fast track target. It also marks the end of our current national HIV and AIDS strategic plan…”
“The 2020 milestones places greater responsibility on us to accelerate implementation while pragmatically addressing programme bottlenecks in order to achieve the 90-90-90 targets”.
He said in collaboration with it partners, the Commission had kick-started HIV joint review programmes to generate data and information to guide the determination of priorities for the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan.
The data would serve as the basis of the Global Fund Grant allocation that would be due in May 2020.
He reiterated that HIV testing and anti-retroviral medicines were free and so people should patronise such services to stay alive for a long time.
There are over 3,700 facilities across the country offering free HIV testing services to help people to know their status.
He called on civil society organisations, persons living with HIV/AIDs, and other communities to join in the activities of the celebrations.
Ms Angela Trenton-Mbonde, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, said the fight against AIDS had seen a lot of progress but much more needed to be done to meet the needs of the 27.9 million people living with HIV with 63 per cent on Anti-Retroviral.
There were 1.7 million new infections in 2018, 77,000 AIDS related deaths and 32 million deaths globally since the start of the epidemic, she noted.
She urged communities to continue to play central role in the AIDS response at the national, international and global levels, for greater achievements.
Dr Kwadwo Appiah-Kubi, Member of the GAC Governing Board, assured of government’s commitment towards attaining the 90-90-90 targets.
He said it had doubled the national response efforts including the soon to be introduced HIV test kits to be piloted in the Western Region and later across the country.
Mrs Linda Asante-Adjei, the Vice President of the Ghana Journalists Association, pledged the media’s readiness in partnering stakeholders to promote the national AIDS response.
GNA
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