Accra, April 27, GNA - A day's Training of Trainers workshop on the effective use of female condoms was held in Accra on Thursday.

Twenty-five midwives and tutors from the Greater Accra, Eastern and Ashanti regions are attending the workshop aimed at equipping them with current knowledge on the use of the condom.

It was organised by the Ministry of Health with support from UNFPA and UNAIDS. Mrs Cynthia Eledu, UNAIDS Country Director, said more than 11 million people have so far died of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and 34.5 million are now living with the virus world-wide. Out of this, 23 million are living in Africa.

She said women could play a major role to control the spread of the epidemic if they were encouraged to use the female condoms to protect themselves. Mrs Eledu said women are seriously affected by the epidemic and are four times more vulnerable to the HIV infection than men due to the structure of their genital organ.

In 1981, worldwide ratio of female to male infection was 1:3 but the ratio has now shifted to 50:50. Mrs Eledu said many of these women have absolutely no idea about negotiating safe sex adding that over 60 per cent of those, who are HIV positive are housewives and mothers with only one partner, their husbands.

"They dare not suggest that their partners use a condom lest they are beaten up. Some men even decide to seek satisfaction elsewhere until the wife has come to her senses."

With the introduction of the female condom, which is an improvement over the male condom, a woman now has the right to use a condom even if the man refuses.

Mrs Eledu said the female condom has been designed to line the walls of the vagina cavity to prevent direct contact of the vaginal fluids with the male semen, which when infected contains more virus than the woman's fluids.

She said that about 60 per cent of women in Eastern and Southern Africa have accepted the use of the female condom and "the good news is that some partners do not even notice when the woman has the condom on."

UNAIDS would support the promotion of the female condom and all capacity- building interventions to ensure that women get the condoms to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies, she added.

Mrs Florence Quarcoopome, Executive Director of the Ghana Registered Midwives Association, said midwives have treated over 4,000 cases of STDs and sent over 300 to referral points.

She said the female condoms would go a long way to empower women to protect themselves from STDs. Mr Lawrence Aduonum-Darko, Programme Specialist of the Health and Population Unit, USAIDS, said the female condom is not to replace the male condom but to be added to all available methods to make the fight against STDs and HIV/AIDS successful.