He said apart from the campaign and educational programmes, part of the amount would be channeled towards the rehabilitation of persons living with HIV/AIDS and other sustainable programmes on the disease.

Vice President Mahama announced this during the 2011 World AIDS Day celebration at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region under the theme: “Getting to Zero: The Role of the Youth.”

This year’s theme was strategically focused on the youth in recognition of both the impact of HIV on them and their potential to significantly contribute to reducing HIV infections.

The Vice President said apart from financial commitment, government would also initiate innovations that would ensure sustainability of the Anti-Retroviral drugs to persons living with HIV/AIDS and other associated diseases.

He appealed to all stakeholders to focus on encouraging people to know their status since HIV/AIDS was no longer a death sentence as was perceived in the past.

The Vice President said under the new strategic plan for HIV/AIDS, the focus would be on the elimination of mother to child transmissions, HIV/AIDS transmission, nationwide reduction of the disease by 50 per cent and the provision of adequate access for treatment and amelioration.

He appealed to corporate Ghana and the private sector to partner government in fighting the menace since curtailing the disease was increasingly becoming a difficult task for government alone, particularly with current waning donor support.

Dr Angela El-Adas, Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, said Ghana was among the five countries that had reduced their prevalence rates by 20 percent and gave the assurance that her outfit would step up educational programmes to meet their target of totally eliminating mother to child infections.

She promised that a programme would soon be rolled out to engage the youth to be peer educators to help reduce the current high rates of the disease among the 15 to 24 age groups in their campaigns in subsequent years.

The WHO in 1988 declared December, 1 every year as World AIDS Day. The day is being observed worldwide to raise awareness, educate and inform people on ways of preventing the disease.

It is also to inform governments on policies to adopt in the fight against the disease.

The observance of World AIDS Day in Ghana has brought about many advantages.

The government through the Ghana AIDS Commission, GAC has implemented polices and taken steps to reduce stigma and discrimination against people living with the disease.

Today many people living with the disease are able to come out boldly to form associations which provide care and support.

In an interview with Radio Ghana’s correspondent, the Director of Technical Services of the GAC, Dr Richard Amenya highlights the benefits of observing World Aids Day.

A person living with the disease says PLHIV’s are appreciative of government efforts at supporting them, thereby alleviating their plight.

He however complains of shortages in the supply of Anti Retroviral Drugs, ARV’s.

In response, Dr Amenya said the Commission is working hard to address the challenges for the continuous supply of ARV’s.

Experts stress this does not mean the same would occur in a real-life setting and say men should not worry unduly.

But they are recommending more studies.

The preliminary research, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, looked at semen samples from 29 healthy donors.

Each donor sample was separated out into two pots. One of these pots was then stored for four hours next to a laptop that was wirelessly connected to the internet. The other was stored under identical conditions, minus the laptop.

The scientists, from Argentina and the US, suspect that the effect seen is unrelated to the heat kicked out by a laptop, although heat can damage sperm.

Under investigation

The UK’s Health Protection Agency has been closely monitoring the safety of wi-fi.

It says people using wi-fi, or those in the proximity of wi-fi equipment, are exposed to the radio signals it emits – and some of the transmitted energy in the signals is absorbed in their bodies.

However, the signals are very low power.

The HPA says there is no consistent evidence to date that exposure to radio signals from wi-fi adversely affects the health of the general population.

UK fertility expert Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: “The study is very well conducted, but we should be cautious about what it may infer about the fertility of men who regularly use laptops with wi-fi on their laps.

“Ejaculated sperm are particularly sensitive to many factors because outside the body they don’t have the protection of the other cells, tissues and fluids of the body in which they are stored before ejaculation. Therefore, we cannot infer from this study that because a man might use a laptop with wi-fi on his lap for more than four hours then his sperm will necessarily be damaged and he will be less fertile.

“We need large epidemiological studies to determine this, and to my knowledge these have not yet been performed.”

He said men should still be cautious about balancing a laptop on their thighs for hours on end.

“We know from other studies that the bottom of laptops can become incredibly hot and inadvertent testicular heating is a risk factor for poor sperm quality.

“There is a case report of a man who burnt his penis after using a laptop resting on his lap for a long time. Therefore, there are many reasons to try and use a laptop on a table where possible, and this may in itself ameliorate any theoretical concerns about wi-fi.”Scientists are questioning if using wi-fi on a laptop to roam the internet could harm a man’s fertility, after lab work suggested ejaculated sperm were significantly damaged after only four hours of exposure.

The five-day International Conference on Family Planning which is underway will discuss research, new contraceptive methods, as well as youth sexual and reproductive support. JOYnews Dzifa Bampoh is in Dakar and reports that over 2,000 delegates are attending the International Conference on Family Planning, making it the largest ever gathering of its kind discussing family planning issues.

Prof. Micheal Klag, Dean of the John Hopkins School of Public Health, in his address at the opening ceremony said family planning use is one of the key measures needed for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. “Economic growth prospects are accelerated in a country when it is able to provide healthcare and education to children and their mothers … these countries can plough back on those investments, when children are spaced families build their own economic savings and nations are able to invest in other capital forming activities and expand their market economies. It is now up to all of us to be sure that all couples have equal access to family planning science.”

Some participants expressed optimism that they would be able to share ideas and learn from other countries’ experience. One participant, 25-year-old Primrose Manyalo from Zimbabwe who is interested in reproductive health and contraception for the youth, said she’s excited at participating in the conference. But a participant from Nigeria Bola Kusemiju observed, “What we hope is it’s not going to be talk, talk, talk. There should be some tangible action points for conference participants…”

Addressing the opening session of the International Conference on Family Planning, executive director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin stressed the need for family planning strategies targeted especially for young people to improve the quality of life in the future.

On Wednesday – day 2 of the family planning conference – there will be a session on Ghana’s experience with contraception and abortion. Other sessions will analyse contraceptive access and use in West Africa, the role of religious organisations in promoting Family Planning, as well as contraception and reproductive health for sexually active youth.

Official sources put the number of people who died in that crash at 29.

Mr. Wonyongo was accompanied by a delegation from the Northern Regional Co-ordi including the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Mr. Sam Nasamu Asabigi, the Tamale Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Haruna Friday, the Upper East Regional Manager of the Metro Mass Transit, Mr. Salifu Fusieni and some family members of the victims.

Mr Woyongo interacted with the accident victims and wished them speedy recovery. He assured them that the needed support would be offered them to help them to recover fully.

He commended the doctors and nurses for taking good care of survivors of the accident despite the challenges facing the hospital, and reiterated government’s commitment to ensure that the Tamale Teaching Hospital received the necessary support to bring its standards at par with other Teaching Hospitals.

The Regional Minister noted that the Tamale Teaching Hospital needed to be well equipped to enable it to handle emergency cases since it served as a referral hospital for the Upper East and Upper West Regions as well.

He advised drivers to adhere strictly to road safety regulations and to ensure the use of seat belts. He also cautioned transport operators to take records of passengers who boarded their buses for easy identification in times of emergencies.

Dr. Solomon Gumanga, Acting Medical Director at the hospital indicated that 20 patients were currently on admission at the facility and that their conditions were stable. He added that four of the victims who were previously in very severe conditions were gradually responding to treatment.

He stated that the medical doctors and nurses were doing their best to ensure the victims received the best of care. He reiterated the need for drivers to be careful on the roads to prevent such unfortunate accidents.

Mr. Salifu Fusieni, Upper East Regional Manager of Metro Mass Transit indicated that the company had taken up the bills and expenses of both the deceased victims at the mortuary and the injured ones who were currently on admission at the hospital.

He stated that the company would ensure that its drivers observed strict road safety measures to prevent future road crashes.

Stocks of essential drugs, including anti-malaria medicines, are said to be running lower by the day with hapless regional health authorities saddled with over GH¢2 million debts owed to suppliers.

Checks have revealed that public health facilities in the eight districts and two municipalities in the region, including Bunkprungu Yuuyoo District, are indebted to the Bolgatanga Regional Medical Stores to the tune of GH¢2, 149,187.92.

The debt has been attributed to delays by the National Health Insurance Authority to pay claims made by the facilities some of which submitted the claims as far back as June.

The debts have also affected stocks of non-drug consumables which are fast depleting. It is already feared that the debts, if not addressed properly and timely, could affect healthcare delivery in the region, which is one of the country’s poorest regions.

Research company Dr Foster concluded that weekend treatment is “risky” after finding a 10% spike in hospital mortality rates, across 147 hospital trusts.

One in eight trusts had higher than expected death rates on Saturdays and Sundays, while a “handful” of trusts saw mortality rates rise by as much as 20% at the weekends. The overall death rate for emergency admissions rose from 7.4% on weekdays to 8.1% at weekends, an increase of 9.5%.

Roger Taylor, director of research at the group, said the problem was largely down to staffing issues.

He told the BBC: “It’s about having the more experienced staff in the hospital, looking after patients out of normal working hours. “The junior doctors, they’re always around, but they’re not the ones making a difference here.”

He urged hospitals to make sure they always had sufficient cover so that patients got to see the right doctor. “I will be asking the NHS medical directors to look closely at weekend services to ensure patients admitted at weekends receive the same standards of care as those during the week.”

The commission has subsequently cautioned men against patronizing their activities as they face a high risk of infection. At a media briefing in Kumasi last Friday in connection with this year’s national celebration of the World AIDS day at Obuasi on December 1, the Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Dr. Angela El-Adas, said, “If you match the national prevalence rate of 1.6 per cent to that of the commercial sex workers, you can see that there is a real problem at hand.

Globally, individuals who sell sex have been found to be at a very high risk of getting the disease. It has been found out that generally, sex workers operate with a high number of sexual partners, a situation which meant that on becoming infected with the disease, they could potentially pass it on to multiple clients.

Worried over the situation, the acting Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Frank Nyonator, has directed all health facilities to stop prescribing chloroquine for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria (non-severe form of malaria).

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting of INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies of Antimalarials in Africa (INESS) in Accra Monday, Dr Nyonator warned that “any health facility having chloroquine and administering it for the treatment of malaria will have to answer why”.

He said every effort must be made to ensure that chloroquine did not block the use of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) in the country.

A study undertaken by INESS in Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region, Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region and Navrongo in the Upper East Region from 2009 to 2011 has shown that some health facilities in the country are still prescribing monotherapies such as chloroquine for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria, although the drug has been found to be ineffective in the treatment of malaria.

In 2005, Ghana switched to the use of ACTs due to increasing resistance to chloroquine for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria. The first line ACTs for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in Ghana are Artesunate Amodiaquine (ASAQ) and Arthemether-Lumefantrine (AL).

Dr Nyonator said the results from the studies would be used to improve healthcare systems in the country.
Buttressing Dr Nyonator’s directive to stop the use of chloroquine, the Principal Investigator of INESS, Prof Fred Binka, said something ought to be done to stop public health institutions from prescribing monotherapies to treat malaria.

“People have been taking chloroquine for so long and see no need to change, and for public health facilities to be offering them this opportunity is unacceptable,” he said.

On INESS, Prof Binka said the project was to provide national, regional and international health decision makers with independent and objective evidence on the safety and effectiveness of new anti-malarial drugs as a basis for a malaria treatment policy.

The INESS project provides the platform for the safety, effectiveness and efficacy of antimalarials to be studied in real-life settings in Africa.

The four-year project, which started in 2009 with Ghana and Tanzania, is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mozambique and Burkina Faso are also involved in the project.

Making a presentation on how certain factors in the health system, access to health facilities and patients’ adherence to a treatment schedule could affect the efficacy of ACTs, Dr Frank Atuguba, the Site Co-ordinator for Navrongo, explained that, for instance, if 1,000 patients had fever/malaria and sought treatment in a health care facility, in the end only 70 out of the 1,000 would be treated effectively.

That, he said, was due to many factors, such as the correct diagnosis of the case, access to a healthcare facility, compliance and patient’s adherence to treatment schedule.

Dr Atuguba said there was the need to take a second look at the factors impacting negatively on the efficacy of drugs at the various levels in the health system.

He said a lot of money was being used to purchase drugs but if, at the end of the day, the drugs were not working due to factors in the healthcare system, then it amounted to pouring money down the drain.

Another presentation on the study of “Community and Provider Acceptability of ACTs” by Livesy Abokyi of the Kintampo Health Research Centre indicated that the first source of care for fever/malaria was herbal remedies.

The study also found that most Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) use Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDTs) but there were some shortages.

However, it came to light that none of the private providers used malaria diagnostics but they had in stock many mono and combination therapies and the treatment was based on what patients asked for or what the drug store operator preferred.