A worrying analysis by the Ghana AIDS Commission has revealed that the Ellembele District has the highest HIV prevalence for adults in the Western Region.
“The Ellembele District has the highest HIV prevalence for adults between 15 and 49 with the prevalence of 2.3%”.
This stems from the national and subnational HIV /AIDS projections and estimation for 2020. Nationally 346,120 people are reported to be HIV positive with a new infection of 18,928.
Speaking in an interview with Empire News, the Acting Technical Coordinator of the commission, Francis Antonio noted that following the statistics table are the Tarkwa Nsuaem municipality and the Sekondi Takoradi metropolis.
He explained that “Tarkwa is second with 2.2% and we have that of Sekondi Takoradi metropolis around 1.8%”
He says this trend is alarming owing to the fact that the prevalence in these three areas is higher than the regional and national averages.
”The regional average for Western Region is 1.7% and that of national is 1.68%.”
The statistics reveal that the young population (15-24) constitutes 47% of the population of new infections with gender segregation of females 83% and male 17%.
“New infections especially among the young people between 15 and 24 the data is that they accounted for 5,211 new infection cases“
This is mainly due to high-risk sexual behaviours. Mr Francis Antonio, therefore, seized the opportunity to caution the youth to be cautious in their sexual relationships.
“Our advice is that for people below the age of 18 you should abstain from sex if you can’t abstain, you should adopt the correct and consistent use of a condom, and for those with multiple sexual partners we advise that you stick to one”.
He further stressed that young people should delay their first sexual intercourse to help reduce the level of new infections.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/
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