Minister rallies private sector to support HIV/AIDS fight

Koforidua, Aug 16, GNA - The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour, has rallied the private sector to give strong support to the fight to halt the spread of the HIV/AIDS infection.

This should come by way of contribution of money to the AIDS Fund to aid the national response to the disease.

He said the expectation was that corporate bodies and institutions would forge partnership with the government to promote sustained public education and bring treatment to people living with the disease.

He was speaking in Koforidua during a monitoring visit to the region by the Deputy Untied States Ambassador, Ms. Melinda Tabler Stone.

She was there to assess the progress that US-funded HIV Projects was making in this part of the country.

Mr. Darfour spoke of moves to ensure that all those living with HIV-AIDS benefitted from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme - social intervention for the poorest of the poor.

This, he said, would prevent the situation, where some of them because of financial constraint were unable to travel outside their communities to the treatment centres for anti-retroviral drugs.

Ms. Stone applauded Ghana for adopting the right strategies in its response to the disease and the protection of the rights of people living with infection.

She pledged the continued support of the US Government to the West African nation's HIV Response Strategic Plan.

Mr. Stephen Ayisi-Addo, Programme Manager of the National AIDS Control Programme, refuted claims of cure for the infection, saying 'there is no cure for AIDS in the world as of now'.

GNA

By Edmund Quaynor, GNA