Koforidua, Jan. 20, GNA- The Eastern Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Focal Person on HIV/AIDS, Ms Golda Asante has expressed the need for stakeholders in the fight against the pandemic, to support commercial sex workers with alternative means of livelihood to encourage them to stop the trade.

Ms Asante was speaking at a stakeholder's workshop at Koforidua on Wednesday on the Strengthening HIV/AIDS Response Partnership(SHARP)project.

The five-year project being funded by the United States Agency for International Development, is aimed at supporting the Region to care for People Living With HIV/AIDS(PLWHAS).

Ms Asante said the Regional HIV/AIDS Committee treat prostitutes from sexually transmitted diseases and supply condoms to them. She said the Regional Coordinating Council was also promoting the establishment of an association of PLWHAS in all the districts. The Regional Coordinator of the National AIDS Control Programme, Dr Sampson Badu Ofori said the Region had consistently recorded the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, while all the districts had recorded AIDS related deaths.

The Chairman of the function, Nene Narh Dawutey Ologo VI, President of the Regional House of Chiefs and Paramount Chief of Yilo Krobo Traditional Area, said the Region had a great task to reduce the high HIV/AIDS prevalent rate.