HIV/AIDS is now recognised as a leading cause of death in Africa. It is perhaps the most single and most important obstacle to socio-economic progress since about two-thirds of the world's HIV/AIDS infected people live in the sub-region.

This sad revelation was made by the Director-General of Ghana AIDS Commission, Prof. Sakyi A. Amoa, in an address delivered on his behalf by Mr. Kyeremeh Atuahene, the Research Co-ordinator of the Commission at the inauguration of Nkawkaw Secondary School anti-AIDS club formed by Coalition for HIV Awareness and Prevention an NGO.

He said five million people were newly-infected with HIV/AIDS in Africa in the year 2001 with 15,000 new infections a day in 2002.

In Ghana, the prevalence rate is about 3.6 per cent. HIV prevalence in the south belt is 2.3 percent at Accra, and 6.6 per cent in Agormanya.

In the middle belt, the highest is Mampong Ashanti with 4.8 percent, and the lowest is Sunyani which is 1.1 percent.

The Northern belt has its highest in Wa with 6.9 percent and the lowest of 1.6 percent is in Bolgatanga.

He said about 500,000 adult Ghanaians may be HIV infected and majority of them are within the range of 15 and 49 years. Young women of child-bearing ages (15 to 49) are two times more likely to be infected.

The hardest hit regions in Ghana are Greater Accra, Eastern, Ashanti, and Northern Region.

According to the director-general, the highest hit persons among the vulnerable groups are children, the youth and women and particularly, the youth between the ages of 15 and 49.

He disclosed that half of all the 15year olds alive today in the most affected countries will eventually die of the disease, even if infection rates drop in the next few years. If infection rates remain high, more than two thirds of these young people will die.

It is also established that early marriages, sexual violence and the search by greatly adult men for HIV-free sexual partners, greatly increase the risk of infections among adolescence girls and young women in many communities.

He said the government and leaders of this country are so concerned about the situation, and want all and sundry to be properly informed and educated to appreciate the seriousness of the problem.

He expressed concern about the problem facing the young ones today, as the imposition of western culture, which has led to risky life patterns which most of the youth have adopted, and consider to be a modern way of life.

He mentioned some of them as provocative styles of dressing, young girls exposing parts of their bodies, or wearing very tight dresses that expose their body contours, taking drugs and feeling high and others.

He urged everybody to be worried about the infection because the kind of suffering one goes through when one is infected is very devastating.

He commended the NGO, Coalition for HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention for embarking on youth awareness campaigns among school children in the Kwahu South District catchment area to emphasise the need for the youth to abstain from sex.

The Kwahu South District Monitoring and Evaluation Focal person for HIV/AIDS, Mr. Ashaley Dsane, who is also the district's deputy co-ordinating director, said many were those who when the AIDS disease hit the headlines in Ghana did not take it seriously, thinking that the disease was far away and was reserved exclusively for certain groups of people.

Today, sad to say, the disease is very close to each and everyone and in fact, so close is it that, a slip could prove disastrous for everybody.

He disclosed that the district respond initiative undertook a baseline survey in the year 2001 to assess the HIV/AIDS situation. It is on record that between 1997 and October last year, a total of 625 persons tested positive to HIV, an average of 125 a year, and out of this number, 95 deaths were recorded each year.

He further stated that the key determinants pushing the spread of the disease on the district include funerals, commercial activities, Easter celebrations, transit point for vehicles, lack of parental care, peer pressure, video and cinema centres, misconception about HIV/AIDS among others.

He said the Kwahu South District Assembly (KSDA) used one per cent of its common fund amounting to ?21million for activities and programmes to bring home to the people, the health and the hazards caused by the HIV/AIDS virus.

Mr. Daniel Kwasi Amankwah of the Narcotic Control Board advised the students to avoid drugs since it links with HIV/AIDS.

The executive director of Coalition for HIV Awareness and Prevention, Mr. Charles Frempong Appah urged the students to concentrate on their studies and completely abstain from sex and other vices since they are the hope of the future.

The Kwahu South District Director of Education, Mr. Albert B. Amoatey, who chaired the function urged the club members to use it to educate their friends and the general public to check the spread of the pandemic.

He said the education of the disease is not very effective, and therefore urged the various organisations and NGOs on the subject to intensify their efforts.