Dr Mokowaa Blay Adu-Gyamfi (middle), Director-General of Ghana AIDS Commission, swearing in members of the NAP+ Ghana Advisory Board. Picture: Maxwell Ocloo

Advisory board for NAP+Ghana

Porcia Oforiwa Oforiwa Dec - 04 - 2017 , 08:02

The Advisory Board for the Network of Associations of Persons Living with HIV (NAP+Ghana) has been inaugurated with a charge on the members to ensure that the association discharged its mandate successfully.

The board is expected to take decisions, supervise and provide advice for the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the 10 regional chairmen who meet quarterly to deliberate on issues affecting the association.

The 11-member board is chaired by the Deputy Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Dr Isaac Annan.

Other members are Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo, Mr Edem Defeamekpor, Mrs Angela Trenton-Mbonde and Dr Henry Nagai.

The rest are Nana Adjoa Natei-Adu, Ms Gifty A. D. Marley, Mr Cosmos Ohene-Adjei, Mr Emmanuel Beluzebr, Ms Francisca Atuluk and Mr Clement Sefa-Nyarko.

Mandate

The Director-General of the Ghana Aids Commission, Dr Makowa Blay Adu-Gyamfi, urged members of the board to propagate the message of voluntary testing for people to know their status.

She said the board must ensure that “all those who test positive for HIV are put on treatment and have them join the association”.

“We are trying to decentralise treatment given to people who are HIV positive even though treatment is still free,” she added.

No cure for HIV

Dr Adu-Gyamfi also charged the board to also encourage patients to sign on to anti-retroviral treatments and not rely on herbalists or people who claim to have cure for HIV/AIDS, “since there is no cure yet for HIV infection and AIDS, the anti-retroviral treatment suppresses the virus.”

For his part, the President of NAP+ Ghana, Mr Emmanuel Beluzebr, said the advisory board “will monitor NAP+ programmes and services across the entire nation and also raise funds to support its activities”.

He identified stigmatisation and discrimination as challenges that confronted persons living with HIV and urged the public to embrace them.

“I expect to receive the cooperation of both the Ghana Aids Commission and members of the board,” Dr Annan said.