Mr Joe Donkor, Deputy Minister of Education Youth and Sports on Wednesday urged staff of the ministry to voluntarily go in for voluntary HIV counselling and testing to enable them to know their HIV status.
He said getting to know your status frees your mind from all psychological trauma and doubts that one would be going through.
" When you test and you are negative you come out and breathe a sigh of relief and is more careful and when tested positive one still has an advantage of being given medical assistance."
Mr Donkor, who was addressing a workers durbar in Accra said just as how the prevention
of HIV/AIDS must engage our attention so should our knowledge of our status be of prime concern.
The durbar was under the theme: Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS with a sub-theme, Protecting Women and Girls from the Spread of HIV/AIDS.
Mr Donkor said people should not over
rely on the use of the condom for "a poor condom was as good as no condom at all."
He said it was only when people find themselves in a compromised situation that they would have to use a condom and it must be a quality one.
He said the sex drive was very powerful
and urged workers to put in all efforts to resist living irresponsible sexual lifestyles, adding, "playing the game outside marriage was dangerous."
He said the need for VCT was increasingly compelling as HIV infection rates continued to rise and countries recognised the need for their population to know their status as an important prevention and intervention tool.
He added, "our ability as a nation to remain as a relatively low HIV/AIDS prevalent country of 3.6 or even reduce further would largely depend upon people's knowledge of the factors responsible for the spread."
He said ILO code recognised that workplace should be fully utilised as presenting the perfect forum to target HIV/AIDS prevention through education and therefore, appealed to staff to avail themselves of the opportunity of getting to know their status since the ministry had made arrangement and VCT could now be done at the ministry.
He said, having the VCT in our community itself points to the fact that HIV/AIDS was real but the problem was how to address it and urged workers to try to spread the message of HIV prevalence to other people since ignorance was no excuse to HIV infection.
Mr C.S.Sackey, Director of youth and sports said, "let us not sell ourselves to those who entice us into indulging in irresponsible sexual behaviour; our unguided action of two or three minutes enjoyment may lead us to being infected.
He also advised them to make conscious efforts to avoid contracting the dreadful disease so that they could face the future with confidence.
Mr. Kakra Ankobiah, Coordinating Director of the West Africa AIDS foundation said VCT was a confidential conversation between the counsellor and the client.
It helps to reduce stigma in society and clears the notion that people living with AIDS were not good and also enhances faithfulness in families.
The ministry had introduced a number of HIV/AIDS peer educators, who would be available to advise, counsel and assist staff to prepare their minds on the pandemic and go in for the test.