....anal rape victim, 14, also infected

An 11-year-old girl was among the 80 reported cases of HIV/AIDS victims at Korle-Bu last month, according to Prof. Neequaye of the Fevers Unit. But what is unusual about the case is her mode of infection.

Children normally become HIV positive either through blood transfusion or by the disease having passed to them at birth from an infected mother. Yet, this schoolgirl from Accra, two years away from being a teenager, contracted the virus from sexual intercourse.

This very disturbing case is, grappling with the awful story of how a man in his fifties infected a 14-year old girl with AIDS at Huni in the Western Region. The girl was said to have been sent home from school for her school fees but her parents were not in.

Just then she saw a friend of her father who, on learning why she had come home at that hour, asked her to follow him to his house for the money. On reaching the house the man raped the girl through the anus. That was all it took to infect the girl with the dreaded AIDS.

The story was narrated by Grace Omaboe, popularly known as “Maame Dokono,” at a forum on Violence Against Women, organized by the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre in Accra.

The most horrifying aspect of the story is that the man has been let loose after eight months in custody, giving him the opportunity to spread the disease further.

Ms Omaboe blamed the judiciary for its indecisiveness and for allowing unscrupulous men to inflict women.