HIV and AIDS prevalence on the increase in Sunyani
The prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the Sunyani Municipality is on the ascendancy with the rate increasing from 3.8 per cent in 2015 to 4.2 per cent in 2016.
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The Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, Mrs Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson, who disclosed this, said the worst affected age group was between 15 and 19 with a prevalence of 7.1 per cent.
She was speaking at the first ordinary meeting of the second session of the sixth assembly held in Sunyani.
She challenged the Municipal Health Directorate, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the Municipal AIDS Committee, among others, to develop effective strategies to address the canker.
Mrs Kumi-Richardson also charged stakeholders to contribute extensively at every assembly meeting and come up with concrete policy directions to address the issue.
She expressed worry about the current silence on issues of HIV/ADIS in public discourse and said it is one of the factors accounting for the increase.
“This sad data revealed from the 2016 sentinel report should be a big cause for concern to all of us,” she stated.
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Tramadol abuse
Mrs Kumi-Richardson expressed happiness about the high consumption of tramadol, a pain killer, among young people in the municipality.
The worrying development among the youth involving the abuse of tramadol, which is mixed with some beverages, according to her, was gaining notoriety among the youth in the municipality.
She, therefore, called on the Ministry of Health to consider the restriction of the sale of the drug in the municipality only to prescription.
Slaughter house
On the refusal of members of the Brong Ahafo Butchers’ Association to use the modern slaughterhouse, Mrs Kumi-Richardson said the assembly would not allow the butchers to continue to prepare meat from the dilapidated slaughterhouse since the last administration had completed a modern slaughterhouse for them.
Mrs Kumi-Richardson said she had had some engagement with the butchers and that they had agreed to relocate to the new slaughterhouse at Asuakwaa near Sunyani.
