Sunyani (B/A), May 21, GNA - The Brong-Ahafo Region recorded 2,487 HIV/AIDS cases in 2009 as compared to 2,555 cases the previous year, Mr. William Saawil Sopiimeh, Regional HIV/AIDS Coordinator said on Friday. He said from January to March this year, the region recorded 798 cases as compared to 613 cases in 2009.

Mr Sopiimeh was speaking at a Regional Stakeholders Meeting on HIV/AIDS organized by Mission of Hope for Society Foundation (MIHOSO), a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Sunyani. The meeting was attended by HIV/AIDS focal persons selected from 10 municipal and district assemblies in the region. Mr Sopiimeh said prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in Sunyani Municipality increased from two percent in 2008 to 3.8 in 2009 whilst in the Wenchi Municipality, it increased from three percent to 3.4 percent. In the Asunafo Municipality the prevalence rate decreased from 2.1 percent in 2008 to two percent in 2009 whilst the Kintampo Municipality also saw a decrease of 3.1 percent to 2.1 percent. Mr Sopiimeh said this year, the Ghana Health Service intended to intensify behaviour change communications to promote abstinence and the use of condoms among the youth.

He said the regional prevalence rate on HIV/AIDS increased from 2.6 percent in 2008 to 2.9 percent in 2009 and appealed to those who could not abstain from sex to always use condom to curb the spread of the disease. Globally, Mr. Sopiimeh said 33.2 million people were affected with HIV/AIDS with Sub-Saharan Africa recording 22.5 million infected cases. He attributed the rapid spread of the disease on the continent to illiteracy, ignorance and poverty. He said nationally in 2009, 22,177 adults and 3,354 children lived with the disease adding that Eastern Region had the highest prevalence rate of 4.2 percent with Northern Region recording the lowest prevalence. Mr Gabriel Benarku, Executive Director of MIHOSO, expressed concern about the stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS and attributed the rapid spread of the disease to discrimination against victims in society. He said HIV/AIDS was "no respecter of persons" and appealed to the public to show compassion to the victims to minimize its spread. Mr Benarku said the NGO focused on primary health care services, training of peer educators, sexual and reproductive health rights education among other things and that by the close of the year it would have trained more than 200 peer educators.

The meeting coincided with the launch of an HIV Implementation Project funded the Global Fund for HIV.

The title of the two year project is "Reinforcing and Scaling up of HIV Services: Strengthening HIV Prevention and Effective Targeting". Kintampo South, Kintampo, Sunyani, Wenchi, and Techiman Municipals as well as Dormaa East, Tano North, Asutifi, Nkoranza North, Techiman and Jaman North are areas selected for the implementation of the project. 21 May 10