By Erica Apeatua Addo
Tarkwa (W/R), March 14, GNA – The Press Attache at the United States (US) Embassy in Ghana, Mr Kevin Brosnahan, has entreated media practitioners in the Western Region to fight stigma attached to people living with HIV/AIDS.
He said if people were discouraged from getting tested or appropriate treatment, they could pass the virus on to their sexual partners or unborn children.
Addressing some selected journalists in the Western Region at the opening of a two-day training workshop on HIV/AIDS at Tarkwa, Mr Brosnahan said, “stigma can be deadly for people with HIV. We saw that in the US in the 1980s at the beginning of the epidemic.”
The programme was organised by the African Centre for Development Reporting and sponsored by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It was on the theme “Test and treat for HIV to achieve epidemic control by 2030.”
He said on December 2, PEPFAR released a five-year strategy, which outlined the path for how the US government would work with their 55 partner countries to achieve the UNAIDS HIV treatment target- goal of 95-95-95.
“We seek to ensure that 95% of all people living with HIV know their status, that 95% of all people diagnosed with HIV receive sustained anti-retroviral treatment, and that 95% of those receiving ART achieve viral load suppression.”
Mr Brosnahan said, “that’s what gets us to our goal of eliminating HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and we need your help as journalists to inform the public, overcome stigma, encourage prevention, testing and treatment.
He revealed that in the Western Region, there were more than 26,000 people living with HIV and that amounted to 2.2% prevalence in the population.
“You are key players in changing high-risk behaviors so the training of journalists to perform these roles is important.”
For the last six years, PEPFAR has trained over eighty journalists across the country on diverse topics regarding HIV.
“You can help people understand and make responsible choices and refer them to helpful resources: where to get testing, how to know their status, and how to find cost-free treatments that can save their lives and suppress their viral load,” he said.
He further implored journalists to take advantage of the training and leverage social media to support traditional media in the campaign against HIV/AIDS.
The online tools and resources, including productions introduced to journalists by the African Centre for Development Reporting training team could be used for teaching, learning, and production purposes, he said.
He said the use of social media to support the campaign was important because it appealed to the youth, who constituted the sexually active age bracket of the population.
He indicated that they could help push the vital information and messages on making informed choices, test and treat, to help achieve epidemic control by 2030.
GNA