Sunyani (B/A), July 13, GNA - The Brong-Ahafo Region recorded a total of 3,746 cases of HIV/AIDS in 2008, representing 2.6 percent prevalence as against 3.3 percent the previous year. Mr Nat Dzadey, Regional HIV/AIDS focal person, who announced this, said the figure comprised a number of patients and blood donors screened in 17 hospitals in the region.

He was addressing a review meeting of regional and districts HIV/AIDS committee in Sunyani.

Mr Dzadey said of 2,597 people screened at the regional hospital in Sunyani, 406 of them tested HIV/AIDS positive whilst at the Holy Family hospital in Berekum, 375 out of 2,144 persons tested positive. The Presbyterian hospital at Dormaa-Ahenkro had 392 HIV/AIDS cases out of 2,305 people screened with the Saint Elizabeth Hospital at Hwidiem recording 155 people who tested positive out of 917 persons. Mr Dzadey said the Holy Family Hospital in Techiman recorded 770 HIV/AIDS cases out of 4,871 people screened whilst the Ahmadyya hospital also in Techiman had 182 HIV/AIDS cases out of 3,114 people tested. He said the government hospital at Bechem recorded 36 cases out of the 1,143 people screened with the St. John's of God hospital at Duayaw-Nkwanta recording 81 HIV/AIDS cases out of the 794 people screened.

Out of the 761 people screened at St. Mary's hospital at Drobo, 146 tested positive and 94 out of 619 tested positive at the government hospital at Sampa.

The Goaso government and Atebubu government hospitals recorded 214 out of 877 and 63 out of 480 respectively. The St. Mathias hospital at Yeji saw 66 tested positive out of 876 people screened. Mr Dzadey stated that at the Kintampo Government Hospital, 369 people tested positive out of 1,441 people screened whilst at the government hospital at Jema, out of a total of 199 patients screened, 17 tested HIV/AIDS positive.

The Methodist hospital in Wenchi recorded 319 cases of HIV/AIDS out of the total number of 1,431 people. Mr Dzadey explained that even though the region recorded low prevalence rate in 2008, the rate at which the deadly disease was spreading especially among the youth was alarming and appealed to the general public to change their sexual behaviour. He said fighting HIV/AIDS was a shared responsibility and urged all and sundry to wage a relentless war against its spread. In a related development, participants at a policy dialogue meeting on HIV/AIDS advocated the castration of culprits in rape and defilement cases to deter perpetrators.

They admitted that castration was a major human right abuse "but prison sentences slapped on perpetrators of rape, defilement and other sexual abuses are not harsh enough to deter others". The meeting under the theme: "promoting the rights of women affected by HIV/AIDS", was organised by the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and sponsored by Womankind, an international non-governmental organization at Abesim near Sunyani.

The participants noted with regret that victims of rape and defilement went through a lot of physical and psychological trauma and were sometimes stigmatized in schools, which affected their education. "Sometimes you see perpetrators of rape and defilement walking freely after serving their jail terms whilst the victims continued to suffer", Mr Hammond Kwarteng, Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of the Department of Children said.

The participants stressed the need to abolish certain outmoded cultural practices that promoted the spread of HIV/AIDS especially among women such as widowhood rites and female genital mutilation. Mrs Eudora Oppong, Administrator, FIDA, said the prevalence of HIV/AIDS had increased rapidly across the globe and Africa had been most severely affected by the pandemic.

She said the disease had grown to immense proportions and it had been recorded that between 10 and 30 percent of sexually active people in major cities in Africa were HIV positive. Mrs Oppong noted that HIV virus thrived where there were human rights violations adding, "poverty and poor living conditions make it extremely difficult to support the family". She said the fear of acquiring HIV/AIDS due to its monetary cost and deadly nature, caused cultures to discriminate against those living with it and appealed to the general public to desist from stigmatizing victims of the pandemic to help combat its spread.