A total of 329 persons in the Cape Coast Metropolis got infected with HIV/ AIDS in 2014 as against 301 in 2012, representing an increase of 4.3 per cent over the past two years.

As of September this year, 324 persons had tested positive in the Metropolis.

Mr. Benjamin Amoako, Head at the Disease Control Unit of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Health Directorate, has therefore, expressed worry about the trend and called for all hands to be on deck to stop the spread.

He was speaking at the launch of True Companion Foundation (TCF), a new Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) established to create platforms and opportunities for the youth to have sustained habit to build their communities through hygiene, sanitation and entrepreneurship.

Mr Amoako said the most vulnerable groups were among the youth between the ages of 10 -19 and called for a very quick response, particularly from the youth themselves to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Cape Coast and its environs.

He noted that the seeming silence on HIV /AIDS in recent times did not auger well for the health of the population and called for increase awareness on the infection within the Metropolis and the nation as a whole.

He said more than 90 per cent of those who tested positive got infected through unprotected sexual intercourse.

Mr. Amoako stated that teenage pregnancy was also on the increase in the Metropolis, with 352 cases recorded as of September this year.

He expressed the hope that True Companion Foundation, which would be operating in the Metropolis, would educate the youth to abstain from sex and ensure that the problem was reduced to its minuscule state.

Mr Emmanuel Desmond Mensah, Executive Director of the NGO, speaking at the launch, urged residents to be volunteers and ambassadors for the development of their communities.

He said the Foundation was formed to empower the youth to do something positive to transform the society and would be operating in the coastal communities including Anafo, Idan, Amanful, Brofo Yedur, Ekon and Moree all in the Central Region.

The Foundation had already started sensitisation, education and capacity building campaigns in twenty-two schools and six coastal communities in the Cape Coast Metropolis to build their interest in education.