Churches asked to encourage condom use

Agbozume (V/R), Oct. 20, GNA - Dr Andrews Ayim, Ketu District Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has asked the church and traditional authorities to reconsider their stand against introducing the youth to condom usage.

He said popularising condoms among the youth could be unpalatable, yet it was inevitable.

Dr Ayim was addressing an HIV/AIDS sensitisation durbar organised by the Ahokpoe Youth Association on Wednesday at Agbozume. He noted that though abstinence and faithfulness were the ideal, it was not good trying to hide the use of condoms from the youth. Dr Ayim asked the youth in particular to make a choice between their lives and HIV/AIDS and asked if it was condom use that introduced early sex and promiscuity among the youth.

He said high incidence of pregnancy among unmarried women was an indication that the abstinence and faithfulness message had failed. Dr Ayim said HIV infection was on the rise in the district with one of five persons tested at the district hospital found positive since 2004.

He said 199 out 857 people screened were positive in 2004, with women being three times more than men, while 152 out of 705 were positive last year.