Sunyani, Jan 12, GNA - Mr William Saawil Sopiimeh, the Brong-Ahafo Regional HIV/AIDS Coordinator, said on Thursday that 1,738 HIV/AIDS cases were recorded in the region between January and November last year.

He said the figure brings to 12,597 cumulative HIV/AIDS reported cases in the region from 1986 to November 2005. Mr Sopiimeh was speaking at the inauguration of the Regional Council of Assemblies of God HIV/AIDS/STIs Response Initiative Team in Sunyani.

He expressed concern that the pandemic was impoverishing already poor communities and reversing all gains made in all sectors of the economy.

Mr Sopiimeh said the directorate last year trained 73 HIV/AIDS counsellors in 15 hospitals in the region to render voluntary counselling and testing services.

He said the regional hospital in Sunyani had taken delivery of the CD4 Count Machine and expressed the hope that antiretroviral therapy would soon be available at the hospital.

In an address read for him Nana Kwadwo Seinti, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, commended the Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services for its decision to join the campaign to halt the further spread of the pandemic.

Nana Seinti told the response team to take note of the ongoing interventions aimed at minimizing the spread of the pandemic in the region in particular and the nation in general.

He said even though ongoing interventions through public education had achieved 98 percent success, there were still serious challenges. Mr Alexis Dery Danikuu, HIV/AIDS Coordinator, said the inauguration of the Brong Ahafo Response Team had brought to nine the Church's Response Teams in the country, saying the Central Region Team was yet to be inaugurated.