According to Ebenezer Appiah Agyekum Abrokwah, acting Eastern Regional Technical Coordinator of the Ghana AIDS Commission’s Technical Unit, an estimated 2,128 new HIV infections have been recorded in the Eastern region.
Unprotected sexual encounters between young men and women in the region, as well as other reckless and risky sexual behaviors, have been attributed to the current situation.
As reported by the AIDS Commission, there are 47,8166 people living with HIV in the Eastern Region who are receiving antiretroviral therapy, with only 30,538 of them having access to the medication.
“We are seeing an increase in prevalence in even Eastern region. We are getting more people tested and we are getting more HIV cases. Our estimated new infections are about 2000. We know that about 80% of HIV transmission is through unprotected sex with an infected person so basically, the idea or arrows point to unprotected sex.
“Young people are engaging in risky sexual behaviour and also we are seeing that there is a lot more exposure of young people to a lot of sexually suggestive stuff like the contents we see on TV, contents we are watching on the internet, lifestyle that is being advocated out there by the older population so we see a lot of young women and young men engaging in risky sexual behaviour,” Ebenezer Appiah Agyekum Abrokwah stated.
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