Panafrican News Agency (Dakar) - April 3, 2001
He said the figure represented 4.6 percent of the total population, adding that "at the current prevalence rate, it is estimated that the number of those infected could swell to 1.3 million by the year 2005."
Dr Anane said this in a speech read on his behalf by Dr. Kwaku Yeboah of the AIDS Commission at the formal launch of the 14 million-dollar African Youth Alliance project to combat HIV/AIDS and improve Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) in the country.
The five-year project (2000-2004), which is being sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is to be implemented by the UN Population Fund, and Pathfinder International and Program of Appropriate Technology for Health, two US-based population and health related non-government organisations.
It is targeted at the youth of up to 29 years old that have been identified as most vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, but lacked the appropriate information.
Dr. Anane said that by the end of December 2000, 43,587 cases of AIDS had been reported at the health ministry facilities throughout the country. He added that 6,289 cases were reported between January and December 2000 alone.
"What is most precarious is that many more cases of infection go unreported and the majority of those infected are young people in their productive stages of life between ages 15 years and 34 years," he said.
Females made up 63 percent of those affected in Ghana.
Dr Anane said that the high infection rate of AIDS among adolescents is a result of challenges such as peer pressure, unemployment and poverty, among other things, which make them vulnerable to social vices, including promiscuity.
He pledged the government's commitment to the implementation of existing national population, HIV/AIDS and ARH policies and programmes to safeguard the future of the youth and the nation as a whole.
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