Figures released yesterday by the Ghana Health Service are bound to strike fear in the libidos of the male Kerb Crawlers who patronise the sex industry in our urban areas. Among prostitutes, 82% of those based in Kumasi and 75.8% of their counterparts in Accra are HIV positive.
Independent checks made by the paper indicate that the epidemic within the sex trade is caused by the recklessness of both the prostitutes and their male clients, who would forgo condoms so long as the price is deemed right.
As an indication of the growing burden that the deadly disease is placing on our limited health resources, a recent study showed that fatalities from AIDS accounted for 59.7% of all infectious and parasitic disease, with experts estimating that about 353,000 people in the country are infected with HIV/AIDS and also 160,000 children are believed to be orphaned by the disease.
