Civil Society Forum Call for Commitment in Ending HIV/AIDS

The members of Civil Society Forum have called for more commitment on the part of stakeholders to ensure that new HIV and AIDS infections were stopped as a means of ending the epidemic by 2030.

They argued that prevalence rate among the Regions were increasing because commitment and education in fighting the disease was dwindling gradually and could be a major blockade to achieving an HIV free generation.

This came to light during the first quarter Civil Society Forum meeting and capacity building clinic under the auspices of PEPFAR for CSOs working in the HIV and AIDs sector in the Greater Accra Region.

They also called for the introduction of the wheat and sorghum supplement which was given to persons with the disease conditions to improve their living standards.

Ms Cecilia Oduro, the Executive Director of Life Relief Foundation, one of such NGOs working to ensure that availability of HIV and AIDS commodities in the Western Region said the lack of awareness among the youths was sparking up new infections and lots needed to be done to achieve the 90, 90, 90 target.

She said prioritising HIV, Malaria and TB control was key in improving the quality of health of persons living with HIV and AIDS as well as getting best results in curbing the spread of the epidemic.

The Executive Director pointed out that aside the dwindling awareness among the younger generation was the lack of commodities to treat infected persons in order to sustain the gains made in the fight against the epidemic.

Dr Ivy Okine, of the National AIDS Control Programme called for the re-introduction of opportunistic infection medications to act as immune booster for patients.

She said all PMCT would soon be converted to ART sites to make access to antiretroviral drugs more easy and convenient to clients.

Dr Okine said transportation and other logistical constraints were being worked on to ensure smooth transfer of drugs from the central medical stores through the regions to the districts and all operational sites.

Mr Collins Agyarko-Nti, Country Coordinator of the Global Fund announced that the fund had 200 million dollars to fight the epidemic between now and 2020 and another 5.5 million dollars had been released as catalytic funding for key population and human rights activities.

The Country Coordinator said out of the money, $16 million would go to AngloGold Ashanti for residual malaria activities, $94 million for general malaria control programme, $2.5 million for community strengthening, $76.5 million for HIV/AIDS and WAPCAS to fight the disease.

Source: GNA