By Opesika Tetteh Puplampu
Tema, Feb. 14, GNA – Naana Kakie, Chief Executive Officer of the Naana Kakie Foundation, has called on the public to consider celebrating Valentine’s Day with care, noting that HIV/AIDS still exists and can be transmitted during sex.
According to her, Valentine’s Day celebration could be used as a fertile ground to transmit the disease, calling on the public to be wary of unprotected sexual intimacy on the day.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Kasseh-Ada, she said though such occasions could be memorable for lovers to reflect on their love journeys and share pleasantries, they could also be the saddest moments for some lovers as well.
She explained that the story behind Valentine’s Day celebration was for lovers to share memorable reflections and to reignite their love bonds, stressing that “But there are others also who have the intention of approaching and befriending new people of the opposite sex to transmit HIV to them on Val’s Day.”
Naana Kakie, who is known for her consistent preventive education on HIV/AIDS, said some HIV-positive patients feel deceived, cheated, and betrayed, so they sometimes want to take revenge on innocent persons of the opposite sex through unprotected sex with the aim of spreading the disease to as many people as possible.
She also urged the youth to be circumspect of their sexual lives, noting that Valentine’s Day celebrations should be geared towards sharing positive memories and making positive impacts in the lives of loved ones instead of paying back innocent persons for a crime they did not commit.
She encouraged those diagnosed with HIV to take their medications instead of resorting to prayer camps and only rushing to the hospitals in worse conditions.
She also called on the youth to prevent themselves from contracting the virus by wearing condoms during sexual intercourse.
GNA