At least, Twenty-Seven (27) Senior High School (SHS) students in the Kwabre East Municipality of the Ashanti Region have contracted HIV/AIDS, according to the latest reports released by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
Municipal Health Director, Mrs Elsie Kissi-Appiah also disclosed that other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) are on the rise urging residents to be wary and take steps to protect themselves.
‘It is sad to inform you that twenty-seven SHS students have contracted HIV/ AIDS due to unprotected sex and multiple sex partners. Teenage pregnancy is also on the increase’, she announced at a presentation organized by the Ministry of Local Government and Decentralization and Rural Development in the area.
Deputy Local Government Minister, Collins Ntim bemoaned the situation calling stakeholders to step out of their game.
‘The government is also interested in providing free anti-retroviral drugs and one can go for them”, the Minister said.
This also comes in the wake of the revelation by the Programme Manager of the National STIs and HIV/AIDS Control Programme, Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo that 23,495 people tested positive for HIV in the first half of this year.
As of December 2021, the estimated population of HIV-positive persons in the country was 350,000, with only 71 per cent being identified by the control programme.
Of that number, be noted, that over 245,000, representing 99 per cent, were on treatment as of June this year.
