Pastor Ask Colleagues To Refer Persons With HIV To Hospital for Treatment

Reverend John Azumah, a crusader against HIV and AIDS through the word of God has called on the clergy to encourage persons living with the human Immunodefiency virus to report to health facilities for treatment.

According to him, some men of God still believed that HIV was only acquired through spiritual means and not through unprotected sex and other ways such as blood transfusion, sharing razor blades with a person living with HIV (PLHIV) and from mother-to-child transmission, among others.

When a member of your church acquire HIV, encourage him/her to seek medical support (which deals with the physical aspect) he preached, while you the man of God also deal with the spiritual aspect through prayers.

Pastor Azumah made this solemn call in Tamale at the end of a three-day training workshop for media practitioners in the Northern Region on HIV and AIDS reporting organized by the Ghana AIDS Commission in collaboration with the Ghana Journalists Association. 

The man of God and his wife who have been living with the virus for about ten years now, said Jesus Christ recognized the importance of the hospital when he told a story about the Good Samaritan who gave care and support to the man who was robbed and beaten to pulp by robbers on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho. 

The training was in line with government's National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2011 - 2015 aimed at reducing by 50 percent the spread of HIV and AIDS, and mother-to-child transmission to eventually stop new infections in the country.

Participants were taken through topics such as; The National Response to HIV and AIDS; Progress and Challenges; and National Strategic Plan 2011-2015: Towards Achieving Universal Access to Comprehensive HIV Services.

About 50 media practitioners from radio, television and print were trained on HIV and AIDS aimed at equipping them with knowledge to help ensure effective reportage to curb the spread of the disease. 

Director of Policy and Planning at the Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr Joseph Amuzu, who spoke on behalf of the Director General of the GAC, stressed the need for effective and continued education on the spread of HIV and AIDS in order to transform the lifestyle of the populace to ensure the elimination of the disease.

           

He said even though figures from GAC showed a continued reduction in the spread of the disease in recent years, more work needed to be done if the country was to attain her objectives outlined in the NSP 2011-2015.

Currently, the total number of persons living with HIV in Ghana is 217,428, whilst the number of HIV positive children is 31,576,  HIV positive Pregnant Women 12,854 and annual new HIV infections for adults stands at 8,925 and that of children 2,933.

    

Thus, recognizing the good role the media can play in contributing towards the achievement of the NSP 2011-2015, a capacity building workshop had to be organized for practitioners across the country so that the information could get down to the populace very well.

    

Vice President of the Ghana Journalists Association Affail Monney who was one of the workshop facilitators charged media practitioners to go the extra mile to produce critical stories that would help to curb the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Shift your attention a bit from politics, he said, and report on challenges that are facing the rural poor so that life could be better for them.