Ashanti region continues to record high HIV/AIDS cases

The Ashanti region continues to record high cases of HIV/AIDS infections.

The region as at the end of September this year, recorded a total of 3,590 HIV/AIDS and the numbers keep on increasing.

Mr Ebenezer Teitey Sackey, Ashanti region HIV/AIDS Committee member who made this known, stressed the need to mobilize all efforts to end the pandemic by 2030.

Speaking at the inauguration of Metropolitan, Municipal and District HIV/AIDS Response committees at Kwadaso, in Kumasi, he said the pandemic would continue to pose a public threat if stakeholders showed complacency in public education and sensitization.

The Committee members were made up of representatives from the Christian Council, Health and Education Directorates, Civil society groups, and Muslim groups.

They would supervise HIV/AIDS activities, foster linkages among members, monitor and evaluate programmes, organise alert programmes, and promote research and dissemination of information on the pandemic.

Also, they would report on the progress of anti–retroviral therapy supply.

Mr Sackey said HIV/AIDS response had undergone a paradigm shift since 1986, adding that measures had been put in place to safeguard persons living with the disease.

Mr. Sackey noted that 80 per cent of infections were from unprotected sex while 15 percent was from mother-to-child transmission.

He added that with hard work and sensitization on the pandemic, they would achieve their goals.

Madam Olivia Graham, Technical Coordinator of Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), in the Ashanti region said the pandemic was detected in the country in 1986.

She said a multi-sectoral approach as well as private sector involvement, would help fight the pandemic effectively.

Mr Richmond Agyenim Boateng, Municipal Chief Executive for Kwadaso, pledged the Assembly’s support in ensuring that the pandemic was eradicated in the area.