Accra, Sept. 9, GNA - Wisdom Foundation, made up of people living with HIV/AIDS has called on society to treat them with respect and dignity.

According to the members, most of them have never led a promiscuous life nor engaged in commercial sex, but have found themselves infected with the disease although they had and continue to have regular partners.

"The disease is spreading just like hypertension, diabetics and any other diseases that we can think about, and the earlier we can remove the stigma as a society, the better we can join hand in fighting its spread," the members said.

The members were giving testimonies at a day's media sensitisation workshop organised by Hope for African Children Initiative (HACI) an NGO.

The members, who chose to remain anonymous were of the view that society contributed to the spread of the disease since they refused to treat people infected with HIV/AID with the understanding that they deserved what they got and were thus being stigmatised. "The stigma make a lot of people living with the HIV to hide their status and resort to revengeful attitudes that could contribute to the spread of disease," they said.

They also appealed to Ghanaians to address them as "People living with HIV" instead of calling them AIDS patients or AIDS victims adding, "We are not victims nor AIDS patients but rather we have just been infected in a way that any other person could become a victim," they said.

"We need to differentiate between HIV and AIDS since they are not the same".

The People Living with HIV and AIDS also called on religious leaders not to pass judgment on them in their preaching and teaching about the disease because some pastors and reverend ministers also have acquired the disease.

Members of Wisdom Foundation appealed to civil society and government to provide them with support and care and to make their treatment affordable. 09 Sept. 03