AIDS Is Threat To Dev’t- GHS

Dr. Awuku briefing the press

A PHYSICIAN Specialist and member of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), Dr. Yaw Asante Awuku says HIV/AIDS has been identified by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) as a serious threat to national development.

He said most of the youth who are our future leaders are unfortunately being infected with HIV/AIDS daily due to reckless lifestyles.

He disclosed that as at 2010, GHS and NACP recorded 221,941 persons who tested positive for HIV/AIDS with 95,206 being males and 126,735 females.

Dr. Asante disclosed this on Thursday when he made a presentation on the ‘Overview of HIV and AIDS in Ghana: Current Situation, Projections and Interventions’ to the media in Cape Coast.

He said that same year, the adult national HIV prevalence rate reached 1.5% with total annual AIDS deaths of 16,320 including 2,581 children.

Dr. Awuku said currently, a total of 12,890 new HIV cases have so far been recorded for adults and children, a situation he indicated calls for a greater concern from stakeholders and government to support the cause of reducing the HIV/AIDS rate in Ghana.

He noted that the disease is increasingly becoming pandemic in urban areas more than rural areas, adding that in 2010, the urban sector recorded 2.6% with 1.6% for the rural areas.

He said the GHS hopes to get 1,315,917 people to get tested for   HIV, saying when people see the need to get tested regularly Ghana will make a headway in AIDS prevention by 2015.

Presentation the facts, Dr. Asante Awuku said HIV prevalence among antenatal clients in 2010 decreased from 2.9% in 2009 to 2.0% in 2010 representing a 31% decrease and hoped the trend would continue.

He indicated that his outfit has changed its policy of counseling and testing to testing and counseling as well as speeding up work on the virtual elimination of Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV and the management of Sexual Transmitted Infections (STI).

He added that although most blood collected by the GHS is infected with diseases particularly syphilis, the GHS would ensure blood safety transmission, infection prevention and enforce the usage of condoms to curb the situation.

Dr. Asante Awuku therefore appealed to Ghanaians to get tested for HIV and advised HIV/AIDS patients to take the antiretroviral drugs prescribed to them by doctors to help increase their life span.

He noted that improvement in data management and information generation would also be a guide to knowing the number of infected patients and patients under drug treatment.
From Desmond K. Dapaah, Cape Coast