Document is current

Article History

Received: 28 December 2015

Accepted: 21 November 2018

First Online: 4 December 2018

Authors’ information

: Amos Laar has demonstrated research interests spanning HIV, maternal, infant, and young child nutrition. He has experience in planning, implementing, and disseminating community-based research. He has been a co-investigator of ten successful research grants at the University of Ghana and has published several articles in refereed journals.Awewura Kwara is an infectious diseases specialist, with training in Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He is an associate professor of Medicine at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. His clinical and research interest is in management of HIV and TB coinfection. His research in the area of TB and HIV treatment has made important contributions to international research efforts in the field of pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenetics, and drug-drug interactions between antiretrovirals and anti-TB drugs.Priscillia A. Nortey is a lecturer at the Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. She is a clinical pharmacist who worked most of her professional life in the public health delivery service of Ghana. In the last 10 years of her time in this service, she was mostly involved in the training of health personnel. She has been part of the teams involved in the development of several health management guidelines, notably guidelines for HIV and AIDS comprehensive care, pharmaceutical service, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and training health personnel in the provision of these services. She has also been a core member of the clinical team for renal transplant and scoliosis surgery.Augustine K. Ankomah is an associate professor of Public Health at the Department of Population, Family & Reproductive Health, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra. He has blend of academic, program implementation, research and consultancy experience in HIV and reproductive health, with particular reference to most-at-risk populations. Over the past 20 years, Professor Ankomah has conducted individual research, led international multi-center collaborative research and evaluation, published in peer-reviewed international journals, and presented at several international conferences.Michael P.K. Okyerefo is a senior lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Ghana. A trained sociologist with varied research interests, including a focus on the nexus of religion and a host of socio-economic, political, and health processes in contemporary Ghana, Dr. Okyerefo’s research centers on two general areas of sociological inquiry, cultural sociology and sociology of religion. He is the principal investigator in a research on Religious and Health Beliefs and Practices of Prayer Group members in Achimota Forest, Accra.Margaret Y. Lartey is a professor of Medicine and has been working closely with HIV-infected patients in the area of clinical management. In Ghana, she is the most experienced HIV Clinician managing the single largest clinic with 15,000 patients on roll and 6000 on antiretrovirals. She contributes actively to drawing of guidelines and policies on management of HIV infection and involved in the training of all cadres of health workers in HIV care as well as supervising and monitoring other sites.Ernest A. Ampah is a biochemist and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Belgrade, Serbia. He has depth of knowledge in quality assurance and current good manufacturing practices in the pharmaceutical industry. He also has experience with drug and food regulation, having worked with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) Ghana. He is currently a research assistant at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon. His current research interests span malaria, HIV, and nutrition.

: The study’s protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethical Review Committee of the Ghana Health Service (Protocol ID NO: GHS-ERC 03/11/13). Permission was granted from the facilities within which the study was conducted. These facilities were the St. Martins de Porres Hospital, Atua Government Hospital, the Tema General Hospital, and the Fevers Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Informed consent was obtained from all participants after the objectives and the methodology of the study were explained to them. In addition, participants were assured of privacy and confidentiality.

: Participants’ consent was also obtained for the purposes of publishing the results from the study. All the authors also consented to the study results to be published in the form presented in the final version of this manuscript.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.