Juliet Selassie, the Focal Person for the Ashaiman Assembly (ASHMA), is attributing the rise in HIV/AIDS cases to the little attention the country paid to the virus, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though the two viruses are deadly, Madam Juliet is arguing that the country’s strong campaign against COVID-19 silenced that of HIV/AIDS and the consequence, according to her, is the increasing number of HIV cases that the country is recording in recent times.
Juliet Selassie, who was speaking in an interview with The Chronicle, during a health screening exercise at Ashaiman, promised that her outfit would lead the campaign to bring down the rising HIV figures.
“We will carry the campaign to schools, markets and lorry stations, where we will get the numbers to sensitise them. As they get the information, they will propagate it in their respective communities. That way, we think we can drastically slow down the spread of HIV/AIDS,” she said.
In fulfilment of this, her outfit distributed condoms free of charge to both sexes, who had come to check their HIV/AIDS status, for protection against Sexually Transmitted Diseases and to avert unplanned pregnancies.
“Yes, so we are doing the same thing here for the community and this won’t be the last. We can’t wipe the virus out completely and we can only work hard as a country to reduce its spread. And we can achieve this when we carry the community along, to lead in the campaign,” Juliet Selassie explained.
“Let us all be vigilant when we go to the hair-dressing or barbering salons, where sharp objects are used,” she added.
As noted by Juliet Selassie, reports are emerging that HIV/AIDS cases are on the rise and that something must be done about the situation. Because of the exhaustive campaign carried out by the Ghana Aids Commission, Ghanaians became aware of the dangers of the HIV virus. As a matter of fact, some men even bought their own clippers or shaving machines, which they used anytime they visited the barbering salon.
Unfortunately, because the campaign about the virus took a nose dive, majority of the people were no more observing this safety protocols. But can we blame the Ghana Aids Commission for this misfortune? The Chronicle do not think so. The Covid-19 virus was so devastating that everybody in this country focused his or her attention on it, and consigned other diseases like HIV to the background.
This obvious negligence has become a fruit we are harvesting today as a country. Instead of throwing our hands into the air in desperation, we must all (including media) intensify our campaigns against the virus, as we were doing in the past.
But in so doing, the issue of prostitution must be addressed by the government, if we are to win the battle over the increasing spread of the virus. Though the trade is illegal in Ghana, a number of ladies, mostly from neighbouring countries flood our popular streets each night, practising the ‘oldest profession’. Has the law enforcement agencies become so toothless that they can no more deal with the situation?
Ghana was able to control the spread of the HIV virus because the state sank a lot of our money into it. In view of this, the contumacious conduct of these young ladies practicing as prostitutes should be seriously looked at before the situation exacerbates.
As we earlier indicated, every single individual has a role to play, but these individuals have no power to start sacking prostitutes from our streets. It is the duty of the state to enforce the law and we are waiting to see what will happen.
