Jirapa (UW), June 13, GNA - The Jirapa District Health Directorate recorded a remarkable reduction in HIV/AIDS prevalence rate from 3.5 per cent in 2006 to 1.4 per cent in 2007. However, clinical cases of the pandemic increased from 23.9 per cent in 2006 to 28.9 per cent in 2007, Mr Justin Dakorah, Jirapa District Chief Executive disclosed this when presenting an overview of the health situation in the district at this year's People's Assembly at Jirapa.

Despite the impressive achievements in the health sector, he said five pregnant women died during childbirth last year as against two women who died in 2006. Mr Dakorah said guinea worm had been totally eradicated from the district and any new case had been imported from rural communities in Northern and Brong-Ahafo Regions by settler farmers. On the National Health Insurance Scheme, he said about 63.9 per cent of the population of about 109,000 in the district had registered. During an open forum, questions and issues raised centred on lack of tutors at Jirapa Nurses Training College which had only a tutor and the delay in the release of feeding grants to students in Senior High Schools in the North. 13 June 08