Bekwai (Ash), Dec. 26, GNA - About 164 teachers drawn from four circuits of the Amansie East District in Ashanti have attended an HIV/AIDS workshop aimed at equipping them with the requisite knowledge on the disease.

The circuits were Bekwai, Asiwa, Abosamso and Nsuta. The four-day workshop had as its theme, "Teachers - Agents of Dissemination and Change", and was organized by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and sponsored by the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC). Speaking at the close of the workshop, Mr Martin Adu-Frimpong, Amansie East District Director of Education, said teachers were being used for the campaign against the spread of the pandemic because they were in almost every nook and corner of the country and could therefore reach out to the people much more easily. "The country needs people for development but HIV/AIDS is hindering this and this phenomenon has to stop".

Mr Adu-Frimpong said since teachers played an important role in the communities, they had to move one step ahead and fight against the pandemic and urged them to lead the crusade against the disease by imparting the knowledge they had acquired at the workshop to the people with whom they lived. Miss Leticia Diabene, District Director of Health Services, asked teachers who had chemical shops to direct all malaria cases to the hospitals, clinics and recognized health institutions for treatment instead of prescribing chloroquine and artesunate-amoadiaquine to patients.

She said the new drug had side effects and was therefore being observed by health personnel since they made the patient weak and therefore it was only health personnel who could prepare the patient's mind towards the new drug.