860,000 HIV/Aids Infections By 2009

Analysis of the Sentinel Surveillance in all the ten regions of Ghana has indicated that a total of 350,000 Ghanaians were infected by the HIV / AIDS last year, which, it said, would rise to 860,000 in the year 2009.

The report said that the Eastern Region recorded the highest with a leading figure of 49,480, thus 5.3% of the regional average, while the Ashanti Region took the second position with 38,661.

The Director of Stop AIDS Ghana, Mr. John Planza, said this at a collaborative forum of DANIDA and STOP AIDS GHANA in Accra last weekend.

He said each of the ten regions has designated two hospitals to be a Sentinel Surveillance centre where patients, including pregnant women, would be tested for HIV/AIDS.

"In selected sites, health workers will take blood samples from pregnant women as part of their standard antenatal care which these blood samples would then be taken to a laboratory and be tested anonymously for HIV infection," he said.

He stated that this procedure is recommended by the World Health Organisation and is used in almost all the countries.

Meanwhile, the UNAIDS also suggests that the best way to understand the extent of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic is to look at the HIV prevalence among 15 to 49 years old and the percentage at which these groups are infected with the virus.

He said Tamale, Nalerigu and Jirapa, since 1997 had filed no data on HIV infection, but challenged that since Ghana has established a comprehensive Sentinel Surveillance programme, all the regions should be able to provide a national estimate on HIV infection.

On her part, the Public Affairs Manager of STOP AIDS, Mrs. Edith Pinamang, said HIV has spread more slowly in Ghana than in many other African countries.

She said the rate at which the ages between 15 to 49 are attracting the virus is alarming.

She, therefore, advised the young ones to try all means to stay away from having early sex or otherwise they should use condom at all times.

She said the HIV prevalence among 15 to 49 years old is estimated at 20 per cent.