Apam (C/R), April 4, GNA - Gomoa District HIV/AIDS Committee is conducting research on the impact of HIV/AIDS interventions on poverty reduction.

The research is a follow-up of a baseline survey it conducted to get a data for assessing management of the disease in the District. Mr. Eric Akobeng, District HIV/AIDS Monitoring and Evaluation Focal Person announced this at a meeting of the Committee at Apam in the Central Region on Thursday.

Mr. Akobeng said a number of interventions had been put in place to control the disease over the years and it was now time to find out the positive or negative impact of those interventions on poverty reduction in the District.

"HIV/AIDS and Poverty are bed fellows, so interventions put in place must address both."

He noted that since the youth who were in the productive age group were the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in the society it was imperative to find out, for example, socio-cultural and economic factors that determined female dependency and multiple sexual relationship.

Mr. Akobeng noted that the baseline survey exposed some shortcomings in the management of the disease, for instance it revealed that only four out of the 11 decentralized departments in the District were engaged in HIV/AIDS programmes and also that workplace programmes on the disease in the formal sector appeared to be non-existence. He said the revelation by the survey that there was no programme on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission had led to the establishment of two additional Voluntary counselling and Testing Centres at Buduburam and Gomoa Obuasi to support that of Apam Catholic Hospital.

The Focal Person advised members of the Committee to abstain from involving themselves in outreach programmes but to concentrate on monitoring, evaluation and coordinating activities engaged in sensitization programmes to avoid duplication and also to conserve resources.