Pomadze(C/R), July 3, GNA - The Ministry of Health has been urged to offer material and moral support Ghanaian practitioners who claim to have discovered plant and herbal medicine that could help to prolong the life of people living with AIDS.

Mr Frank Ekow Longdon, Executive Director of the Ghana Renaissance Foundation (GRF), a Community Based Organization (CBO) engaged in HIV/AIDS educational activities in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya district with funding from the Ghana AIDS Commission, made the call at Pomadze in the Central Region.

Dr Anthony Normashie, Managing Director of the Traditional Medical Training School at Asamankese Oworam and the former President of Traditional Medical Practitioners Council of Ghana announced recently that he had discovered a cure that could prolong the life span of people living with AIDS recently.

Addressing farmers and traders, Mr Longdon expressed optimism that if Dr Normashie and other Traditional Medical Practitioners were given the moral and other backing the nation would benefit from their discoveries.

He appealed to practitioners in rural areas who had made such discoveries to come out to help stem the spread of the deadly pandemic. Mr Longdon said the disease was causing a lot of harm to the country's most productive manpower resources, saying, the discovery of the herbal and plant medicine was timely.

He said the Government should welcome and encourage herbalists who chalk successes to curb the spread of the disease.

Mr Longdon appealed to media practitioners to intensify their education of the people to change the bad sexual habits of Ghanaians. He stated that unless the people changed their attitude the efforts of the Ministry, Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other stakeholders would come to nothing.

Mr Longdon asked married couples to stick to their partners and charged churches and voluntary organisations to embark on a campaign to check the spread of the disease.

He urged parents and guardians to check their children and wards especially the teenage girls to avoid resist peer pressure to practice pre-marital sex.