KOFORIDUA,Ghana, December 02 -- The New Juaben Municipal Assembly (NJMA) as adopted a four year strategic plan to minimise the spread of the HIV/AIDS disease in the municipality.

Under the plan, a number of volunteer groups and community health committees have been established and charged with the responsibility of implementing the District Response Initiative (DRI) policies.

It is anticipated that, the effective implementation of the plan would reduce the HIV infection rate from 4.2 per cent in 2000 to 3.5 per cent by the end of the year 2004.

This was made known by the New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Nana Adjei Boateng at Koforidua on Saturday to mark this years' World AIDS Day being celebrated under the theme: "Men Make A Difference. I Care Do U".

He expressed regret that for a long time women had been depicted as the most vulnerable and accused of being the carriers of HIV/AIDS without looking at the real vectors - men.

He noted that, this situation had given a wrong impression to men and created a picture of their non-vulnerability and said the theme for this year's celebration was much appropriate since it brought men onto the fore of the spread of the disease.

The MCE also decried the way people already infected with the disease were being treated saying, the enormous task of dealing with the disease would be further compounded if the present trend of discriminating and shunning continued.

The Eastern Regional AIDS/STI Co-ordinator, Dr Sampson Ofori said this year's focus on men offered an opportunity for world leaders to renew their commitment to HIV/AIDS as politicians, frontline workers, fathers, sons, brothers, and friends, adding that men have much to give.

He said men tended to have more sexual partners than women including extramarital partners thereby increasing the risk of contracting the diseaseand passing it on to their partners.

The Bishop of the Koforidua Diocese of the Methodist Church, the Reverend Twum Baah said the Church had initiated an HIV/AIDS awareness programme to educate members of the church on the dangers of the disease.

He called on Ghanaians especially the youth to abide by the principles of the bible and refrain from sin, which often led them to danger.

At Takoradi members of the security services, cadet corps and the Methodist Church on Saturday went on a solidarity route march through the principal streets of Sekondi-Takoradi to draw awareness on the dangers of HIV/AIDS as part of the activities marking the World AIDS Day.

The march was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with technical assistance from Family Health International and the Ghana AIDS Commission.

Addressing the participants after the march, Miss Esther Anne Pesseh, Western Regional AIDS Co-ordinator, said men have an important role to play in the campaign against the disease because of their traditional role in the community particularly in the African society.

She said men should, therefore, assist to protect women from the disease and in this way break the cycle of infection, especially, from its transmission to their babies.

Miss Pesseh said 3,969 cases of HIV/AIDS were recorded in the region from 1986 to 2000.

She said 264 cases of the disease were recorded in the region from January to December last year.

Wing Commander Philip Ayisa, second in command at the Takoradi Airforce Station, said the security services had joined in the celebration of the day because of the alarming rate the disease was destroying the human race.

He appealed to men to champion the fight against the pandemic saying in doing so they would be saving themselves and other people from contracting the disease. - africast/GNA

Meanwhile, the EAC Council of Ministers of Ministers Thursday met in Arusha to prepare the agenda for the regional summit to be chaired by Moi.

Ministers Edward Rugumayo of Uganda, Nicholas Biwott of Kenya and Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, all responsible for regional co-operation, together with experts discussed the progress of a draft protocol for the creation of the East African Customs

Union, the entry point in regional integration.

The Customs Union will provide for a common (zero) tariff regimes, remove non-tariff barriers and establish a common external tariff.

Establishment of the Customs and later the East African Common Market will the most important achievement which will determine the viability of the community that brings together more than 80 million people, experts say.

At the Friday summit, the EAC leaders will receive a report of the Council of Ministers on the implementation of decisions made in earlier meetings.

A their summit last April, the leaders launched the second five- year (2000-2005) development strategy -- a policy paper that lays special emphasis on economic and political co-operation among the three countries -- and approved a 2.2-million-dollar budget for the grouping.

Earlier, they signed five protocols on rules of procedure for the summits, admission of new members and observers, fighting the drug trade in the region, standardisation, quality assurance,meteorology and testing.