The management of HelpAge Ghana, a non-governmental organization, would soon undertake a study on the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among the aged in the country, Mr Ebenezer Adjetey-Sorsey, Executive Director said on Thursday.
He said HelpAge Ghana was currently in consultation with the Ghana Aids Commission and other stakeholders to embark on the study to enable it to serve as a policy guideline similar to other African countries like Kenya.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra at the closing session of a three-day advocacy training workshop on HIV/AIDS, Mr Adjetey-Sorsey said the aged had over the years not been featured in HIV/AIDS programmes as well as policies by government and civil society groups.
"Thus, they are neglected in various interventions drawn up to cater for such needs. But we should all understand that the aged are vulnerable and engage in sexual activities. They also take care of people living with HIV/AIDS and orphans," the Executive Director noted.
The workshop was to build the capacity of stakeholders in HIV/AIDS to enable them to mainstream issues of the aged into their programmes.
Dr Douglas Lackey, Regional Advocacy and Communications Manager of HelpAge International, Africa Regional Development Centre in Nairobi,
stressed the need to feature the aged in national HIV/AIDS policies because they could be infected by HIV/AIDS like any other disease.
He indicated that since the aged were mostly poor, there was the need for government to exclude them from paying the five Ghana cedis required for
antiretroviral drugs used to manage HIV infections.