Stop making fake claims of cure for HIV

By
Yussif Ibrahim, GNA

Abesim (B/A), July 21, GNA – The Ghana AIDS
Commission (GAC) has asked herbalists to stop making fake claims of having
found a cure for the HIV/AIDS, in the interest of public health.

Mr. Cosmos Ohene-Adjei, the Acting Director of
Technical Services of Commission, said such false assertions were unhelpful to
HIV/AIDS control and responses.

He expressed concern about the situation where
many infected persons continued to fall for the deception and said that gave
cause to worry.

There had been a number of cases where
carriers of the virus had lost their lives because they stopped using the
anti-retroviral drugs and resorted to herbal products which did not actually
have the efficacy to control the disease.

He was speaking at a day’s workshop for health
reporters and senior editors, drawn from the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo Regions at
Abesim, near Sunyani.

Mr. Ohene-Adjei said the Commission was
committed to working with traditional medicine practitioners to find cure for
the virus but cautioned against public deception when their products had not
been certified by the relevant regulatory bodies.

There is a directorate at the Ministry of
Health with oversight responsibility for herbal medicine and he counselled
herbalists to submit their products for testing and certification.

He repeated that there was no known cure for
HIV and urged infected persons to take the antiretroviral drugs, telling them
that, there was no other proven medication that could keep them alive.

The GAC, he said, would take steps to bring
the regulatory bodies and policy makers together to put measures in place to
examine herbal products to safeguard the health of users of such products.

Mr. Ahmed Ibrahim Bambila, the Brong-Ahafo
Regional Coordinator of the Technical Support Unit, said stigmatization and
discrimination against HIV patients continued to pose a serious challenge to
the fight against the disease.

He entreated the public to show compassion to
persons living with the disease, saying, that was the way to help them to
accept their condition and to seek appropriate medication.    

GNA

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