THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Professor Sakyi Awuku-Amoa has charged traditional medicine practitioners who claim to have discovered medicine for HIV treatment to come to the commission for rigorous tests to ensure the efficacy of their products.
He expressed grave concern about the lack of proper data on herbal practitioners claiming to have found treatment for the disease, saying, a lot of them are still not recognised by the commission.
The Director-General who was speaking at the opening of the just ended 2nd HIV/AIDS national conference in Accra, called for thorough research into traditional medicine on HIV.
The conference, themed, “Sustaining the Comprehensive National Response to HIV”, was aimed at providing the platform for national and international researchers to share information and experiences, and also discuss the implications of research results for further research, policy and programming on the disease.
Prof. Awuku-Amoa noted that research remains a tool for developing an evidence-based national response.
He said though Ghana's HIV prevalence rate had as at December last year, dropped from 2.2 to 1.9 percent, a lot more needed to be done to prevent the further spread of the pandemic, adding that stringent measures should be taken to avoid the disastrous consequences experienced by other countries where the HIV epidemic has spread rapidly.
“The Commission has adopted a multi-sectoral approach as the most effective strategy to deal with the epidemic. The national strategic framework for 2006-2010 underlines the approach, recognises the epidemic as a socio-economic development challenge and therefore, incorporates strategies for dealing with the complex dimensions of the epidemic”, he emphasised.
Sentiments expressed by Prof. F.T. Sai, Presidential Advisor on Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS were not different from those of Prof. Awuku-Amoa as he observed that an area which required comprehensive research was traditional medicine.
He called on partners to commit more financial support for the national response against the epidemic.
Dr Daouda Toure, UN Resident Coordinator pledged his outfit's continued support for the Commission to help achieve its goal.
By Linda Tenyah
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