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17.10.2019 Health

Media Must Help Stop Stigmatisation Of TB/HIV Patients

By Frank Owusu Obimpeh
Media Must Help Stop Stigmatisation Of TBHIV Patients
17.10.2019 LISTEN

Executive Director of WAPCAS, Ms Comfort Asamoah-Adu, urged journalists to educate the public to stop stigmatising PLHIV and TB patients to enable them open up for treatment with Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

She said this, when dealt with, will help stop the spread of HIV AIDS particularly the youth in the country

According to Comfort Asamoah-Adu, stigmatisation and discrimination against PLHIV and TB patients is still prevalent in certain communities, health facilities and among the general public, adding that the situation was causing the high defaulting rate among such affected persons who were refusing to access ARV treatment.

"This issue of stigma and discrimination keep eroding any successes that Ghana was making in the fight against HIV, especially among key population and hence we need to ensure that it stops to reduce the high defaulting rate and associated deaths," she added.

The Executive Director of WAPCAS said it was worrying that in this age people still had negative perceptions of how HIV and TB was contracted indicating that, "as soon as people get to know of someone's positive status they begin to disassociate with the person and tag him or her as promiscuous and this has generated a lot of stigma in the system."

Speaking at a media workshop held in Koforidua, she added that since 2002, they have been able to access the Global Fund to support health services for key populations, PLHIV and TB patients.

Ms Asamoah-Adu stressed that her outfit had carried out a lot of activities to help reduce stigma and discrimination and urged the media to support her outfit to reduce it further to enable the country achieve success in ending HIV by 2030.

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