Dr. Kharmecelle Prosper Akanbong, Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, was in the Savannah Region as part of his tour of regions in the northern enclave. The brain behind his tour, among others, was to rejuvenate activities and discussions around the HIV/AIDS menace. According to him, creating awareness about the disease on both national and local platforms has drastically reduced it. This, he claimed, was responsible to a larger extent for the recent hikes in infection figures across the country. He saluted the Savannah Region for placing second in terms of low infections. He was, however, quick to call for all hands on the table to fight out the canker, particularly as the region was bracingfor industrial springs such as small-scale mining, which he says are breeding centers for infectious diseases as a result of the congregation of human populations. He made these statements in a round table meeting with the Hon. Regional Minister at his office.
The Hon. Regional Minister was so excited to meet Dr. K. P. Akanbong, and after some cracks of jokes and traces of relationships, he acknowledged the visit, saying that it was particularly significant that his guest was seeking to reignite the call for awareness creation about such a deadly disease, which has claimed several lives of the Ghanaian population on the quiet. The Hon. Minister stated that many people praise leaders for putting up physical infrastructural facilities but appreciate little or none those who invest in the development of human capacity. For him, an enlightened society is a healthy and wealthy society, and so he would ensure that all MDAs across the region devote enough funds for HIV/AIDS sensitization campaign activities, especially now that the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) has been upscaled and about 88% of it will go directly to the Assemblies, he stated.
A short while later, a similar meeting was held in the SRCC meeting room. This time, the Regional HIV/AIDS response team interacted with the Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission. Similar views were expressed, the overriding one being the need to sustain the awareness creation to continue to keep the populace enlightened. This was the general opinion as a lasting solution to the persistence of the HIV/AIDS menace not only in the Savannah Region but, across the country.
