Regional News of Tuesday, 27 May 2003

Source: gna

Workshop on HIV/AIDS ends at Nkwanta

A two-day workshop on the prevention of the HIV/AIDS menace has ended at Nkwanta in the Sekyere West District of Ashanti Region with a call on Ghanaians to tackle the issue of the HIV/AIDS disease physically and not spiritually.

The call was made against the background that a section of Ghanaians had held on to the view that the mode of transmission of the disease was spiritual and not physical.

Miss Gladys Donkor, a Contact Person among the HIV/AIDS disease campaigners in the District, said this at a workshop on HIV/AIDS organised for women in Nkwanta, near Asante-Mampong.

The workshop, which was dubbed: "Women and HIV/AIDS Pandemic", was attended by 30 women with diverse background.

The participants were exposed to the mode of transmission, symptoms and prevention of the disease, since there was no known cure.

Miss Donkor said women were more prone to the disease because their male counterparts because of the anatomical differences.

She said women receive the bulk of the virus if her sex partner was infected with the disease and, therefore, urged women to either abstain from pre-marital sex or impress upon their sex partners to use condom to forestall any eventuality.

She said people living with the disease demanded empathy and not sympathy.

The participants demanded that HIV/AIDS test must be carried out for free.