Let’s Stop The Stigmatisation and Discrimination Against PLHIV – Ghana AIDS Commission
A call has been sent to the general populace to avoid stigmatising and discriminating against people living with HIV in the country.
This call was made by the Director General and Director of Operations of the Ghana AIDS Commission at a two day training programme at Peduase in the Eastern Region of Ghana from the 8th to 9thMarch ,2024.
The Commission bemoaned the tendency of the attitude of some people’s behaviour driving people having the virus to go into hiding and not seeking treatment.
According to the Commission, this scenario can increase the incidence of the disease as unsuspecting people can acquire the virus unknowingly and thus is not good enough for the country.
The Commission said that as a result of their canker of discrimination and stigmatisation, patients of the disease are deprived of national rights and privileges. It postulated that the 1992 constitution, the GAC ACT 738, prohibits these inhuman treatment ; as well as UN Charter on human rights
The right to live, employment, education, accommodation, religion, association, speech, social services, medical treatment ,etc. must be extended to PLHIV in the country without any conditions.
The two-day training tok journalists through various subject matters of the disease .
- The Appropriate Jargons to use in reportage.
2 .Accurate Reportage on HIV issues. - Avoidance of Discrimination and Stigmisation of PLHIV and AIDS.
- Avoidance of Sensationalising HIV stories by protecting their identity and image , among others.
- Avoiding pictorial presentations of PLHIV to cut down on Stigmatisation and discrimination
Giving statistics, the commission intimated that so far, about 356,000 people are living with the virus and are on ART drugs for treatment. They assured the public that once anyone contracts the disease and finds his/status status, there’s no cause for alarm because there’s treatment for it.
The females are found to be more affected than the males .The brothers and sisters in normal ,anal or heterosexual practices are more susceptible to contract the disease per available research findings .
Again, mother-to- child infections are also another source of worry. However, very negligible figure of other causes exist ; for instance contaminated sharp objects cuts , injections with contaminated needles, kisses from gums by kissing.
One can do a self- detecting diagnosis or visit any medical centre to find one’s status. Better still, the ABC method can be used to extricate oneself from possible contraction as prescribed by the GAC. They called all living beings to do the status to find one’s status to curtail the spread of the disease.
Per the GAC convention, patient’s identity and status must be kept away from a third person or the public to absolve them from Stigmatisation and discrimination since it’s infringement on their human right and can lead to suicide and reclusive tendencies .
The GAC implored the public to under go tests to find their status because according to the Commission, HIV is no longer a death sentence and people can live for several years after knowing their status and religiously taking their medics.
