Noguchi to establish unit to test traditional medicine for HIV/AIDS

Accra, Oct. 7, GNA - The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) is establishing a laboratory to test the efficacy and potency of herbal preparations alleged to cure HIV/AIDS. The 100,000 dollars project would be carried out with support from the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC).

The laboratory would put to rest the claim by some practitioners that their preparations could cure HIV/AIDS.

Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa, Director-General of the GAC, who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Tuesday, said Noguchi would come out with guidelines by which traditional medicine practitioners, who claim to have found a cure to HIV/AIDS, could present their preparations for clinical testing and approval.

The guidelines would spell out the procedure to be followed by the practitioners. They would be compelled to disclose the constituents of their preparations. Many a practitioner for the fear that scientists would steal their formula without paying any royalty is reluctant to do that.

"Once the preparation satisfies the laid down guidelines, it will be accepted for testing. It cost not less than 16,000 dollars to test one preparation, he said.

Prof. Amoa said it been established that scientifically, no cure had been found and "until we have the necessary mechanisms to test satisfactorily your herbal preparations and concoctions, we need to be humble in making any claims".

He said most preparations have the potency of curing the opportunistic infections that would bring a sick person back to his feet but explained: "This does not mean the person has been cured of HIV/AIDS".

He said the Commission was in the process of bringing research institutions together to ensure effective coordination of their work.

"The Commission would foster the collaborative and coordinated efforts of Noguchi, the Centre for Scientific Research Into Plant Medicine at Mampong Akwapim and the Department of Herbal Medicine of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi and the Ghana Medical School to establish and delineate clearly, their respective and complementary roles in herbal medicine research", he said.

Prof. Amoa urged practitioners to open up for this exercise and pledged that their patent rights would be protected.

Chiefs urged to be involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS

Abokobi, (G/A) Oct. 7, GNA - The Chief of Abokobi, Nii Sam Adjetey Mohenu at the weekend asked chiefs to be involved in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic which was causing great havoc to the nation's economy.

Nii Mohenu, who is also the President of the Ga District Chiefs Association, was speaking at Abokobi at a forum organized by the Women Federation for World Peace (WFWP), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) on HIV/AIDS, and sponsored by the Ghana AIDS Commission for 20 communities in the Ga District.

He said Chiefs had the responsibility to educate, protect, inspire and empower their people for development; therefore, their health status should be paramount on their agenda.

Nii Mohenu said: " The society today is at the verge of collapse, there is hardly any difference between adults and children these days. They do the same things."

He called for family life educational programmes in all institutions and communities, emphasizing that the target should not be limited to the youth but parents as well.

Mrs Mabel Osei, National Coordinator for WFWP, said the use of condom was not full proof and, therefore, the safest means to avoid the dreadful disease was through abstinence for the youth and faithfulness by married couples.

She advised parents to be more concerned about their children, especially, the sexually active ones, since peer pressure could lead them to smoke, drink alcohol and abuse drugs.

Mrs Osei said four out of the 20 communities in the Ga District had been selected for Voluntary Counselling and Test (VCT). They are Medie, Oyarifa, Ngleshie Amanfro and Kokrobitey.

Anti-HIV/AIDS campaigners urged to undertake house-to-house education

Ho, Oct. 7, GNA - Mr Cephas Ofori, Ho District Assembly focal person on HIV/AIDS on Tuesday called on NGOs engaged in education on the menace to focus their activities on households instead of public workshops and seminars.

He said the destructive effects of the disease were most felt in the homes from where it originated and where it could be best dealt with.

Mr Ofori said this at the launch of a three-day HIV/AIDS education workshop at Ho, organised by 'Better Hope Foundation' (BHF), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), for 30 women drawn from 15 communities in the Ho District.

Mr Kojo Krakani, Chairman of the Social Service sub-committee of the Ho District Assembly, said HIV/AIDS like many other societal problems, could be effectively dealt with in smaller groups like the family where every individual comes from and where the traumas of the menace are directly felt.

He urged families to ensure that their members behaved well and disciplined to curtail the threat of the disease, especially its devastating effects on the manpower base of the economy.