The Ghana Aids Commission, has announced that the Eastern Region has recorded over 2000 new infections in the past year.
The Acting Eastern Regional Technical Coordinator of the Technical Unit of the Ghana AIDS Commission, Ebenezer Appiah Agyekum Abrokwah also said this,
“We are seeing an increase in prevalence in even Eastern region. We are getting more people tested and we are getting more HIV cases. Our estimated new infections are about 2000. We know that about 80% of HIV transmission is through unprotected sex with an infected person so basically, the idea or arrows point to unprotected sex.
“Young people are engaging in risky sexual behavior and also we are seeing that there is a lot more exposure of young people to a lot of sexually suggestive stuff like the contents we see on TV, contents we are watching on the internet, lifestyle that is being advocated out there by the older population so we see a lot of young women and young men engaging in risky sexual behaviour”
Ebenezer Appiah Agyekum -Abrokwa also stated that, many of these people who tested positive have refused to access antiretroviral drugs for management of the virus.
“Another thing is that people are not going for treatment after they test positive, so in places where access to health centers is a bit difficult, people are not able to easily go to the hospital to access treatment, now we are told that health has been decentralized so even health centers and CHPS compounds are always giving antiretroviral so when people are not accessing it then they are still in denial about their status or maybe their religious beliefs do not allow them to access the drug”.
47,8166 people are living with HIV in the Eastern Region, but only 30,538 are accessing the antiretroviral drug.
The cause is said to be as a result to reckless and risky sexual behaviors including unprotected sexual intercourse involving young men and women in the region.
SOURCE – PULSE.COM
