HIV/AIDS scare deepens in Kumasi

30 NEW CASES DAILY SINCE JANUARY THIS YEAR

Gloomy picture of the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Kumasi emerged last Monday when 29 out of a total of 36 people randomly picked tested positive for the disease.

A counsellor at the HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) Centre at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), where the tests were conducted, said the hospital had been receiving an average of 30 new cases of HIV/AIDS daily since the beginning of the year.

The counsellor, Mr Kwaku Antwi, described the situation as very disturbing and pointed out that it was an indication that people were not taking the message on the pandemic seriously enough.

National figures rank the Ashanti Region among the middle range of 3.0 per cent as against the Eastern Region?s top ranking of 6.5 per cent. The national average, however, dropped from 3.6 per cent last year to 3.1 per cent this year.
Other high ranking areas are the Western Region (4.6 per cent, Brong Ahafo (4.5 per cent), Greater Accra (3.9 per cent), Volta and Central (3.5 per cent) and Upper East (3.1 per cent).
The Northern and Upper West regions present the lowest national figures of 1.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.
The Kumasi exercise was part of the re-launch of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) GIV/AIDS campaign which was initiated to drum home the dangers of the disease and the need for personnel of the service to lead lives that would prevent them from getting infected.