The Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has called on government to initiate pragmatic and solution-oriented strategies in reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS in the country.

The NGO reiterated the call on government to pass a legislation empowering local pharmaceutical companies to produce Anti-Retroviral Therapy locally, for sale at cheaper and affordable prices.

This is contained in a statement signed by Madam Gifty Akosua Baka, Country Director of the CCFC, to mark this year’s global celebration of HIV/AIDS, copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The event is being observed under the theme: “Getting to Zero: Zero new HIV infection, Zero AIDS related death, Zero discrimination”, which would be the global topic for next three years.

It said the NGO had included the issue of HIV and AIDS in its health programme, and created awareness on the disease among the people.

The statement said the CCFC would continue to work with other development agencies, fighting HIV and AIDS, to prevent the spread of the disease among children.

It said UNAIDS report for 2012 revealed that sub-Saharan Africa has not seen remarkable drop in new HIV and AIDS infections in spite of global downturn.

The statement said a lot more people would have to be reached with Anti-Retroviral Therapy in most African countries, and appealed to the Ghana AIDS Commission to intensify its fight against HIV and AIDS.