Nkawkaw, March 4, GNA - Over 300 people in the Kwahu West District in the Eastern Region tested positive to HIV between January to November last year through a Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) programme. Statistics made available from the Holy Family Hospital in the district indicated that this was higher than the number recorded for the whole of 2006 where 265 people were found to be HIV positive. Mr Evans Osei, an official of the Holy Family Hospital disclosed this during a community sensitization programme dubbed: 'Treatment Acceleration Project' for residents at Nkawkaw.

It was organised by the Philip Foundation Programme in collaboration with the Private Enterprise Foundation and the National AIDS Control Programme.

Mr. Osei said people were unwilling to go for the VCT for fear of making their HIV status public and encouraged members of the public to go for the test as their results would be treated with confidentiality.

He said the cost of the test was very minimal and that there were enough drugs available for people who tested HIV positive. Mr Osei urged families to support their relatives who had contracted the disease to enable them to live longer. Madam Julia Nimo, the District Director of Health Service said prevention of HIV/AIDS, malaria, diabetes and tuberculosis, among others were part of the Millennium Development Goal agenda aimed at ensuring health for the people to enhance national development. She urged the public to support the HIV/AIDS campaign to free Ghana from the pandemic. A Person Living with AIDS (PLWA), in a testimony, said most people with the virus were unwilling to come out because of uncertainty about public attitude towards them.

She said the public must do away with the erroneous impression that people with the virus were tinny looking adding, "there are good looking fat people who are carriers". Ms. Miguela Keller from the Saint Dominic Hospital at Akwatia said about 10,000 people have benefited from the VCT programme and that since 2004 the hospital had been promoting the VCT among pregnant women resulting in the lives of many children being saved. She urged people who have tested HIV positive not to spread the virus adding that people who knew their HIV positive status and intentionally engage in acts to infect others must stop, else the authorities would be compelled to reveal their identities. "If they don't stop such activities it can negate the national effort to reduce the HIV infection rate" Ms Keller said. She warned a young lady with AIDS at Akwatia who is believed to be intentionally spreading the virus to put a stop to it. Her relatives have approached the hospital several times urging it to disclose their daughter's identity but that has not been done, she added.

Mr Boateng Mensah, the Executive Director of the Philip Foundation Programme urged the media to always be cautious of their reportage in order not to inflame passions and stigmatise PLWA. He advised people who attend to accident victims to always remember to quickly wash their hands with disinfectant as well as those who patronized barbering shops to insist on sterilized equipment to be used for them.