The Ghana AIDS Commission, an inter-ministerial body to co-ordinate and restructure the national response to HIV/AIDS, has been inaugurated at a Cabinet Retreat at Akosombo.

The two-day meeting organised by the government and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS brought together government ministers, members of the diplomatic corps, civil society and other stakeholders to deliberate on a national strategic plan on HIV/AIDS. A two-man Ugandan delegation comprising the Reverend Barnabas Halem'Imana, Chairman of the Uganda AIDS Commission, and Dr. David Apuuli, Director-General, Also attended the meeting.

The Ghana AIDS Commission, which is under the chairmanship of the President of the Republic of Ghana, is composed of ministers drawn from 11 ministries, including Health, Defence, Communications, Justice and Employment and Social Welfare. It has a rotating Vice-Chairperson to be chosen from among the ministers, beginning with Mr Mohammed Mumuni, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare.

The National House of Chiefs, Ghana Employers Association are some of the organisations represented on the Commission, which is the highest policy making body on HIV/AIDS that will provide an effective leadership in the activities of all stakeholders for the control and eventual elimination of the scourge.

Dr. Mary Grant, a member of the Council of State, who performed the inauguration, noted that "HIV/AIDS is a sobering and alarming problem that can no longer be contained by a few experts. The problem requires that it is discussed openly and understood by all as a tragedy that touches all...and threatens the national capacity to survive."

Mr. John Mahama, Minister of Communications, said it is significant that while the various political parties criss-cross the country in search of votes, their attention is fixed on the quality of education and increased food production and not on HIV/AIDS. "Yet I am certain that in the next five to ten years HIV/AIDS will be the single most important crisis that confronts our nation. There can be no quality education when teachers and the farming population are decimated by this dreadful disease," he added.

Dr. Martin Mandara, World Health Organisation Representative in Ghana, who gave an overview of the AIDS situation, said African countries must rise up to the challenges and stem the rise of the epidemic since the continent carries a greater portion of the global burden with over 70 per cent of the world-wide infected people living in Africa.

Professor Kwaku Danso-Boafo, Minister of Health, touched on the fact that most people do not believe that over 200 people are infected everyday with the HIV.