Make HIV/AIDS counseling more effective - Amenowode

He said counseling should be comprehensive and more affective, happening in sessions and not the one-stop talks before testing, which at best could be referred to as information sharing.

Mr Amenowode was speaking at an HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Stakeholders workshop in Ho.

He said people were still apprehensive about the disease and would die from self-pity rather than the effects of the disease.

Mr Amenowode also suggested that statistics on the disease's prevalence which is normally in percentage terms should be stated in real numbers for more effect.

The workshop was under the theme: Strengthening HIV/AIDS Response Partnership with Evidence-Based Results, and was supported by USAIDS.

It was organized under the auspices of Future Generations International (FUGI) an NGO and facilitated by Family Health International (FHI).

Mr Samuel Benefour, Community Programme Manager of FHI, said the 14-month long project, covering eight districts in the Volta Region was aimed at improving HIV/AIDS management.

He said in close collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the project would seek to increase knowledge about the disease and improve access of those affected.

Health officials from the participating districts and Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) centres in the region attended the workshop.

Mr Steven Awunyo-Akaba, a Field Officer of FUGI, said the current scheme was a follow-up to the SHARP project, between 2008 and 2009, which deepened knowledge about the disease in the Ketu and Ho Districts.

“This time round the area had been expanded and focus made sharper to tackle the old and emerging issues of HIV/AIDS management.

Papers delivered at the workshop were on Supporting Roles of Peer Educators and Formation and Management of Support Groups: Challenges, Successes and the Way Forward.

GNA