Kyebi, Feb 17, GNA - One-hundred-and-thirty-five patients out of 287 screened for HIV/AIDS in the East Akim District last year tested HIV positive and this represented 47 per cent.

Sixty units of blood out of 352 units donated over the same period tested positive, representing 17 per cent. Mrs Eunice Abuaku, the East Akim District Director of Health Services, said this at the 2005 District Health Service Performance Review Meeting at Kyebi on Wednesday.

She said maternal deaths in the district reduced from 13 in 2003 to 3 last year and explained that the district achieved this by organizing health education durbars in communities prone to maternal deaths to explain to them the danger signs of pregnancy, abortions and post-abortion care.

Mrs Abuaku said the District Directorate of Health Services also involved the queen mothers and opinion leaders in the fight against the maternal deaths.

She said the district was able to increase the family planning acceptor rate from 14.6 per cent in 2004 to 29 per cent. Mrs Abuaku said directives had been given to hospitals and health centres in the district to end free delivery. They are to charge women who have not registered with the Health Insurance Scheme and deliver babies at their facilities.

Mr Emmanuel Victor Asihene, the East Akim District Chief Executive, said the district assembly had decided to pay the extra 10,000 cedis on the premium required for registration of members of the Health Insurance Scheme in the district. He said the re-registration of the scheme for the year had started but noted that the response was slow.