Kumasi, April 11, GNA - Out of every 100 pregnant women screened in Ashanti Region last year, three to four of them were found to be HIV positive, Mr Michael Boamey, Ashanti Regional AIDS Control Co-ordinator said in Kumasi on Tuesday.

He said the region recorded 2,999 cases from January to December last year. Mr Boamey was speaking on, "AIDS in Ghana with particular reference to Ashanti" at a Youth AIDS Peer Education Project Training Workshop in Kumasi. Ghana Red Cross Society is organising the workshop with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and technical assistance from the Family Health International IMPACT Project, an American NGO in Accra.

It is to equip the 36 participants with knowledge on HIV/AIDS to effect behavioural change among their peers. Topics to be discussed include abstinence and sex negotiation and communication skills, values and attitudes, counselling, peer-pressure, drug and substance abuse.

Mr Boamey observed that the disease is on the increase in the region and that abstinence from sex is better than the use of condoms and contraceptives. He said the mode of transmission of the HIV in the region is mostly through heterosexual contact, which is about 75-80 per cent, from mother to child is 15 per cent while blood and blood products is only five per cent.

Mr Samuel Kweku Clement, National Youth Co-ordinator of the Ghana Red Cross Society, (GRCS) said the participants are to be trained as educators, who will go out to educate their colleagues on AIDS in the metropolis.

He urged the participants to take the workshop very seriously to enable them to ensure effective behavioural change in society. Mr Peterkin Agyekum Danquah, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the GRCS said the HIV/AIDS issue does not concern health personnel alone but everybody in society.

He advised the young educators to be very serious with health-related issues and abstain from early sex to avoid contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).

Mr Daniel G. Kwablah, Ashanti Regional Youth Organiser of the GRCS and Project Manager said the workshop is on pilot basis after, which the participants would be expected to undertake 18 months education programme.

He explained that after the 18 months when proved successful it would be extended to the other districts in the region.