Cape Coast, Jan. 6, GNA - Budget and Planning Officers in the Central Region, on Tuesday charged district focal persons on HIV/AIDS to ensure that monies allocated for combating the disease from the Assembly's Common Fund was released for the intended purpose. They expressed concern that many of the assemblies had resorted to using the money for other purposes because the focal persons did not put enough pressure on them to release it to them to facilitate their work. The officers expressed these concerns at a seminar organized by the Society for Women Against Aids in Africa (SWAA) Ghana, a Non Governmental Organisation, to discuss and plan a sustainable way of fighting HIV/AIDS in the region. Mrs Cecilia Sedornu, President of SWAA-Ghana, underscored the need to ensure the release of the money which was 0.5 per cent of the common fund.

She said the money could be used to intensify public education on the disease and help people living with the disease to improve upon their health and build their capacities. Mrs Sedornu said people living with HIV/AIDS needed to be supported, and that such support would enable the region, which was the seventh most prevalent of the disease in the country to reduce deaths as a result of the disease.

The regional monitoring and evaluation focal person on AIDS, Ms Etonam Nyagorme, said the prevalence rate in the region was 2.9 per cent higher than the national prevalence rate of 1.9 per cent thus the need for the funds to be released to help curb its spread. She called on the District Chief Executives to release the funds so that more attention could be focused on the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa district which was the first in the region with a prevalence rate of 3.8 per cent.

A Person Living With HIV/AIDS, Mrs Hannah Sai-Johnson, pleaded for more funding for patients in the region in order to help them get their nutritional needs, as some of the patients had been abandoned by their families. 06 Jan. 09