Koforidua, Dec. 16, GNA - By December next year, all regional hospitals and half the number of district hospitals in the country would be providing anti-retroviral treatment to HIV/AIDS patients in the country to help prolong their lives.

Dr Nii Akwei Addo, Programme Manager of the National AIDS/Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Control Programme, disclosed this at the inauguration of a 200 million-cedi Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) and Data Collection Centre at the regional hospital, Koforidua, on Friday. The centre, which is a research and training centre, also offers Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) and the Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV care. Dr Addo said currently 34 hospitals and centres in the country offered the ART services to HIV patients and that by March next year, ten more centres would be added.

He said the Koforidua Regional Hospital was the first Regional Hospital in the country to start the ART therapy and therefore it was the aim of his office to help develop the project into a centre of excellence so that it could serve as a training centre. The Eastern Regional Head of the National AIDS/STI Control Programme, Dr Sampson Ofori, said currently a lot of people in the region were on the ART therapy and it was important that the centre was established to monitor how the people were reacting to the treatment. He said apart from that, the centre collects data on HIV and AIDs management in the region for analysis and for training.