Over 3,000 people test HIV positive in Northern
Region
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, Oct 8, Ghanadot - Statistics from the Ghana
Health Service in the Northern Region revealed that
between 2006 and June 2009 the region recorded 3,100
HIV/AIDS cases and the patients have been put on
Anti-retroviral drugs.
According to the data, three hundred persons tested
positive in 2006, while 800 were recorded in 2007.
Another 1,100 were registered in 2008 while 900 were
recorded from January to June this year.
Dr. Patrick Bampoh, Northern Regional HIV Coordinator
for the Ghana Health Service, announced this at a
workshop for media practitioners in Tamale.
Among the ten regions of the country,the region,
however, had the lowest prevalence rate with 1.1 per
cent in 2008.
Dr Bampoe urged the public to make good use of the 12
operational sites in the region for voluntary counseling
and testing and to be put on drugs early enough if
tested positive.
He noted that media personnel stood a higher risk of
contracting the disease because a lot of people,
especially women, were fond of them.
Dr. Bampoh said poverty, urbanization, migration,
youthful exuberance and some cultural practices also
account for the spread of the disease with 80 per cent
of the infections being through sexual intercourse.
The HIV Coordinator said misconception and
misinformation were factors preventing people from going
for voluntary counseling and testing for the disease.
Ghanadot
