Nkawkaw, March 27, GNA – The Holy Family Hospital at Nkawkaw recorded 385 HIV/ AIDS cases last year as against 344 people in 2007. Two hundred and seventy-five out of the victims are women. One hundred and forty-five out of a total of 1,728 people who donated blood to the hospital last year were detected to have contracted the AIDS virus. Mr Evans Osei-Baah, HIV/ AIDS Co-ordinator at the hospital, disclosed this in an interview with the GNA at Nkawkaw. He said 393 HIV/AIDS patients have been receiving anti retroviral therapy drugs at the hospital for the past three years at a subsidize cost of GH C5 a month.
Mr Osei-Baah said the Ghana AIDS Commission had also registered 150 AIDS patients under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to access health care at the various hospitals. He said due to stigmatization against HIV/AIDS patients, those who have contracted the disease failed to disclose their status to even their partners and their relatives, and continued to spread the disease to others. Mr Osei-Baah advised new couples to go for HIV/AIDS test to know their status and also urged people to go in for Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) which is free of charge.
Source: GhanaWeb
