The Berekum Municipal Health Director, Dr. Jacob Kojo Aleba has bemoaned the high rate of new HIV infections.
He noted that the new infections could derail the efforts put in place to reduce the rate of infections.
He has therefore advised the youth especially to practice safer sex to ensure that they remain protected.
He opined that the situation was not a good sign and that stakeholders need to work assiduously to prevent the rate of infections.
He indicated that the directorate would intensify condom promotion to encourage residents to practice safer sex.
He said they were also embarking on an education campaign for the public about the prevention and management of the disease.
In December 2022, the Ghana AIDS Commission revealed that close to 29,000 children are living with HIV in the country.
Within the first half of 2022, a total of 23,495 people in Ghana tested positive for HIV out of 948,094 who participated in the test.
In 2021, the Commission recorded a total of 346,120 Ghanaians living with HIV. Out of the total number, 28,710 (8.3%) are children between the ages of 0-14.
Globally, the new data from the UNAIDS on the global HIV response reveals that during the last two years of COVID-19 and other global crises, progress against the HIV pandemic declined.
The number of new infections dropped only 3.6% between 2020 and 2021, the smallest annual decline in new HIV infections since 2016.
Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Middle, East and North Africa, and Latin America all saw increases in annual HIV infections over several years. In Asia and the Pacific – the world’s most populous region – UNAIDS data now shows new HIV infections are rising where they had been falling.
Climbing infections in these regions are alarming, the data revealed.
In eastern and southern Africa rapid progress from previous years significantly slowed in 2021.
The data further highlighted that there were declines in new HIV infections in western and central Africa and the Caribbean, but even in these regions, the HIV response is threatened by a tightening resource crunch.
By: Rainbowradiooline.com/Ghana
