Bank Of Ghana Joins Battle Against Aids

The Minister of Health, Dr. Richard Anane, has said that Africa loses 1% of her economic growth annually because of the HIV/AIDS scourge.

Referring to statistics from a World Bank study, he said the losses in growth terms for the countries that are hit hardest by the disease range between 3-4% annually.

Dr. Anane was launching the Bank of Ghana HIV/AIDS education programme in Accra at the weekend. The programme which is being funded by the World Bank is aimed at preventing the spread of AIDS among citizens.

He said prevalence rate of the disease in Africa ranged from the lowest rate of less than 1% in Mauritius to the highest rate of 34% in Botswana.

The Health Minister provided horrifying statistics on the spread of AIDS in the world saying at least 36 million people were infected worldwide of which sub-Sahara Africa accounts for 7% (2.5 million).

He said Africa accounts for 10% of the global population. However, out of the 22 million people that have died from HIV/AIDS, 15 million were from Africa. Last year alone, he said, about 3.8 million Africans were infected with the fatal decease.

The Health Minister said Ghana had its share of the devastation of HIV/AIDS and noted that the adult prevalence rate of the disease stands at 4.6% with the Ashanti Region recording the highest case of 13,023, which is 31.6% and Upper West with the lowest of 0.2% between 1986 and 2000.

Dr. Anane said that notwithstanding the effort put in place by the government to combat the disease in the country, the adult prevalence rate of Ghana rose from 2.4% in 1994 to 4.6%. in the year 2000

He disclosed that plans are far advanced to establish a permanent secretariat for the Ghana AIDS Commission, which is based in the Presidency.

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), Dr. Kwabena Duffuor called on the BOG staff to take advantage of the programme. He said the fight against the disease can be successfully achieved if the whole nation comes together to find a lasting solution.

The education programme will run for a year.