Yendi (Northern Region) - Barbers and hair dressers in Yendi have appealed to the Ghana AIDS Commission and the District Assembly to assist them with credit to purchase equipment to sterilise their tools as part of renewed efforts to fight the HIV/AIDS.

Sulemana Imoro, President of the Yendi District Barbers and Hair Dressers Association made the appeal at a day's forum organised by the District HIV/AIDS Committee for members of the association at Yendi on Sunday.

The forum was to sensitise the members on the need for sterilizing their tools to prevent the spread of infection among their customers. Imoro said it was difficult for them to identify people living with the disease and the only way to ensure the safety of their customers was through the sterilisation of their tools.

Jacob Konlaa, District Response Initiative Coordinator on HIV/AIDS, said unlike other sexually transmitted diseases, which were spread only through sex, HIV/AIDS could also be spread through blood transfusion, injections by using one syringe for more than one person, and the use of one blade for barbering more than one person.

He said HIV/AIDS was not within a group of people but that it was within every society worldwide and therefore urged members of the association to treat their tools well. Mr Konlaa appealed to the members to educate their customers to abstain from indiscriminate sex because thousands of people were dying through HIV/AIDS daily.

Mrs Maria Ayichuru, a Public Health Nurse at the Yendi District Hospital, said scientists were still at a loss as to how to find a cure for the disease. She announced that the hospital recorded 84 HIV/AIDS cases last year out of which ten had died.