Lordina Takes HIV Campaign To Gbawe

The First lady, Lordina Mahama, last weekend launched the second phase of the campaign to prevent 'Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV And Keep Mothers Alive' at Gbawe in Accra, with a call on women to regularly test their breasts for early detection of cancer.

The campaign offers free cervical and breast cancer screening, HIV and syphilis screening, reproductive health testing as well as counselling materials and distribution of free condoms, among others.

The campaign was launched by the Ghana Chapter of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), in collaboration with the Ghana AIDS Commission and UT Foundation in Accra.

Launching the campaign at the forecourt of the Gbawe chief's palace in Accra, Mrs Mahama called on men to join in the education and encouragement of women and young girls to test for HIV and also test their breasts for cancers.

According to her, together with the men, Ghana could eliminate AIDS and prevent new HIV infections, adding that when men understood and appreciated women health issues, they were able to better support their wives to ensure safer and better reproductive health behaviour at home.

Mrs Mahama stressed that prevention was the key to saving lives of dear ones and the development of Ghana depended on the health of the people.

She said Ghana had been working hard through the Ghana AIDS Commission, with the support of her office, to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV by ensuring that no girl or woman in her reproductive age got infected with HIV.

Director General of Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr Angela El-Adas, said HIV disproportionately affected women, and together with children, they formed about 70 percent of all cases.

She said in 2013, about 2,400 children under the age of 15 were newly infected with HIV with only one quarter of these children having access to effective treatment.

Additionally, Dr El-Adas mentioned that there was a huge gap in addressing the reproductive health needs of women as each year, more than 3,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and almost half of those women die.

'Another seven percent will develop breast cancer,' she said.

Dr El-Adas asserted that it was for those reasons that the Ghana AIDS Commission had been collaborating with the Ghana Chapter of OAFLA, in a nationwide campaign.

She said, 'As Ghana's premier ambassador for the global plan to eliminate new HIV infections among children and keep their mothers alive the role of the First Lady ties-in perfectly with the priorities of the commission as well as the objectives of OAFLA.'

Speaking at the launch, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo, said the campaign was highly esteemed globally and was also designed to tackle reproductive health issues that mostly affect women and children which hitherto were not given prominence.