Officials confirm rising HIV infection rates

Ghanaian health authorities on Friday confirmed increases in the country's HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. The National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) said the current prevalence rate of 3.4 percent had reflected a 50 percent increase from the 2.3 percent recorded in 2000. "The figures are rising. That they are going up is very worrying - we need to do a lot more to either reverse the trend or stabilise it," NACP manager, Dr Nii Akwei Addo, told the UN news service PlusNews. NACP said Ghana's densely populated Ashanti and Greater Accra regions had recorded the highest prevalence rates, being 3.9 and 4.1 percent respectively.