Tema General Hospital records 18 new HIV cases weekly

The Tema General Hospital within the Tema Metropolis of the Greater Accra Region records an average of 18 new cases of HIV infections weekly, MyNewsGh.com reports.

Mrs. Ruth EwuraAdjoa Panford, Principal Physician Assistant at the ART clinic who revealed this to SVTV Africa, said the Hospital has two clinic days and the least of the cases recorded on each of these days is 5

“We have two clinic days in a week. On average, on each clinic day which is either a Tuesday or Thursday, we get a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 12 new cases. So, we get an average of 9 persons on a clinic day”, she revealed.

She stressed “there are times we get as high as 40, 50 or 60 in a given month”

The alarming figures she explained is because the Tema General Hospital is a referral hospital and serving smaller health facilities which refer clients to the facility reason why there are increasing figures.

“The number of cases does not mean that people within Tema alone are those who are getting infected but a situation where other facilities including Ada are refer patients to the Tema General Hospital for the necessary counselling and health facilities”, she explained.

In her view, the facility has expanded the clinic to cater to the increasing number of new infected cases but appealed to persons who have been diagnosed with the virus to stick to their anti-retro-viral drugs to stay healthy and subdue the virus.

Commenting on the 2019 figures, she disclosed that there has been a slight decline in the number of new infections as compared to 2018.

Last year, one thousand and seventy-two persons, made up of 636 females and 436 males in 2019, tested positive to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in Tema.

Eight hundred and seventeen of the number tested at Tema South where Tema General Hospital, a referral hospital is located while Tema North accounted for 103 of the cases; Manhean and Community One Clinics tested 78 and 74 respectively.