Migration causes HIV/AIDS in Upper West

Dorimon (U/W), Nov. 10, GNA- Mr Humphery Naabo, Wa Municipal Co-ordinating Director at the weekend attributed the rising rate of HIV/AIDS cases in the Upper West Region to the rural-urban drift. He said most of the girls who migrated from rural to urban areas to do menial jobs hardly find decent accommodation. They are, therefore, exposed to all kinds of conditions including rape, pre-marital sex and prostitution.

On return to their various villages, they in turn infect men who come in contact with them and this causes the increase of the disease, Mr Naabo said.

Mr Naabo said this when he launched the Co-operative League of the USA (CLUSA) Government Accountability Improves Trust (GAIT) anti-HIV/AIDS campaign programme at Dorimon in the Wa District. The programme aims at reaching out to about 60 communities in the District by sending trained officers to every household to educate them on the menace of the disease.

Mr Naabo said apart from migration, cultural corruption was also another cause of the infection, saying many young ladies have unprotected sex and wear dresses that attract uncontrollable men to either rape or court them.

Mrs Beatrice Haruna, chairperson of the Upper West Regional branch of GAIT urged traditional healers and soothsayers, who claim they could heal HIV/AIDS patients to desist from those claims.

She alleged that the provision of condoms was rather promoting the youth to engage in pre-marital sex, adding that GAIT would collaborate effectively with chiefs and opinion leaders to check the rise of the disease in the communities.

Mrs Haruna said GAIT would undertake house-to-house campaign because most people in rural areas do not have access to television and radio sets, adding, "Even those who have do not hear the messages in their native languages".