Ashanti leads in reported AIDS cases - Regional Minister

Ashanti Region still leads in the number of AIDS cases recorded in the country, accounting for 13,023 out of the 43,587 cumulative figure, representing about 30 per cent of the national total.

The Regional Minister, Sampson Kwaku Boafo, MP announced this at the opening of a two-day pre-proposal workshop on Ghana AIDS Response Fund (GARFUND) in Kumasi.

The region recorded 2,999 and 3,215 HIV/AIDS cases in 1999 and 2000, respectively, while 1,372 cases made up of 791 females and 582 males were recorded between January and June this year.

The Regional Minister observed that HIV/AIDS affected the development effort in virtually all sectors of the economy and thus making it more of a developmental issue than a health problem.

The workshop was organised by the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) for representatives of ministries, departments and agencies as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies and civil society organisations in Ashanti.

Mr Boafo said the epidemic was so pervasive and so devastating that it required a multi-sectoral response from all segments of the Ghanaian society to promote interventions to reduce high risk sexual behaviours, treat and control other sexually transmitted infections and mitigate the problems of those already infected with the HIV/AIDS or otherwise affected by the pandemic.

If effective mechanisms and strategies were not put in place to check the rapid spread of the HIV/AIDS infection in Ghana, estimations are that by the year 2004, the number of the population infected would be 720,000 and 1.36 million by the year 2014.

He said it was in view of such catastrophic consequences of the pandemic that the government has not relented in its effort to solicit for support from partners to combat the disease.

He said the government has, therefore, set up a Presidential Commission to effectively tackle the HIV/AIDS spread and mitigate the effects on those living with the virus.

It is in line with this development that the national strategic framework on HIV/AIDS was formulated to mainstream the fight against the disease into sectoral programmes, he added.

Dr Sylvia Annie, Director of the Ghana AIDS Commission, asked the participants to be reminded on the theme for the workshop "HIV/AIDS: From planning to action" and tackle the issue seriously.

She asked that public education be intensified to sensitise the public on the alarming rate at which the disease was spreading for them to realise the danger posed to the country.