Workers to undergo Voluntary Counselling and Testing

Accra, Aug. 31, GNA - Two hundred and fifteen workers of the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, have agreed to undergo Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) for HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)

The workers who attended a sensitisation workshop organised by the Ministry in conjunction with the Ghana AIDS Commission agreed to undertake the VCT as their contribution towards national efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.

A statement, issued and signed by Mr Kofi Aggrey, Public Relation Officer of the Ministry, on Wednesday said the workshop "was to encourage workers drawn from the various departments and agencies of the Ministry to attach maximum importance to the HIV/AIDS prevention programmes that regularly take place at the workplace"

Dr Samuel Nyarko, Medical Doctor at the Ghana Police Hospital, who took the participants through the Management of STIs advised them to depend on qualified medical personnel for solutions to their health problems.

Dr Nyarko advised participants to know their status in respect of the pandemic and encouraged them to accept counselling and testing voluntarily using readily facilities and opportunities at the Police and La General Hospitals, Adabraka and Mamobi Polyclinics and the West African AIDS Foundation at Roman Ridge in Accra.

Others are Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana at Lartebiokoshie, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and Vital Health Foundation.