Mpreaso (E/R), Feb 07, GNA - The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the Kwahu South District increased from 3.8 per cent in 2003 to 4.0 per cent last year.

Dr Joseph K. L. Opare, the Kwahu South District Director of Health Services, said this at the annual review meeting of the District Health Management Team (DHMT) at Mpreaso on Friday.

He said out of 419 patients tested in the district, 261 tested HIV/AIDS positive while 79 out of 1,986 units of blood voluntarily donated in the district also tested HIV positive.

Dr Opare said as a way of helping to control the spread of the disease in the district, the Ministry of Health is to establish a Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centre this year at the Holy Family Hospital, Nkawkaw and the Kwahu Government Hospital at Atibie. He called for the establishment of clubs of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) on the Kwahu Ridge to help provide support for them. The Director said the district has a nursing population ratio of one nurse to 10,264 patients and appealed to the Kwahu South District Assembly to sponsor some students to the nursing training colleges so that completing their courses.

Dr Opare appealed to the district assembly to consider building bungalows for health workers in the district. He said the Kwahu Government Hospital at Atibie was facing a serious water problem.

''The water flowing through the pipes is brownish, and indication the water level had sunk very low.'' Dr Opare appealed to the district assembly and other citizens from the Kwahu area to support the hospital to improve upon its water supply system.

Mrs Angelina Amponsah, the Principal of Holy Family Nursing Training Institute, said the college was faced with inadequate accommodation and staff problems.

She said the delay in the mechanization of the salaries of staff had compelled some of the newly employed staff to leave. Mrs Irene Kom, the Principal of the Midwifery Training Institute, Atibie, said the Institute was able to enrol only 43 of the 54 students that were interviewed for the 2004/2005 academic years because of inadequate accommodation.

Mrs Kom said since the school was established in 1955 when it was enrolling between 12 to 14 students, it had not seen any expansion in its facilities. 07 Feb 05