22,000 AIDS Cases Reported At Berekum

Berekum (Brong Ahafo), 5 Nov., The Ministry of Health has recorded a total of about 22,000 AIDS cases since 1986 when the first cases of the disease were reported in the country. The Brong-Ahafo regional minister, Mr David Osei-Wusu, announced this when he launched this year's national AIDS prevention month at Berekum yesterday. The month-long programme, which focuses on children, is under the theme ''children living in a world with AIDS''. He said the officially reported cases represent less than 50 per cent of all cases of AIDS adding that more than 50,000 cases have actually occurred. Mr Osei-Wusu said the Ministry of Health has estimated that four per cent, that is one out of every 25 people in Ghana, are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. He said if the current trend of the prevalence of HIV in the country continues, it would have serious implications related to adult deaths, AIDS orphans, demand for health services, AIDS treatment costs and national productivity. Mr Osei-Wusu said the number of AIDS orphans in the country is estimated to increase to about 160,000 by the year 2000. Such a large number of orphans would be a tremendous strain on social systems. He called for a campaign to increase and provide information, education and skills by which people especially those under 18 years can protect themselves against the disease. Mr Osei-Wusu said current statistics show that young people between the ages of 15 and 18 are the most at risk since their sexual practices tend to be unplanned and they lack skills to have safe sex. He said AIDS messages to the young should be planned to encourage them to believe that they could abstain from sex until they are ready to bear all its responsibilities. Mr Osei-Wusu called for an inter-sectoral approach to organise discussions to provide the correct information to fight the disease.