Ghana's sentinel surveillance report on the prevalence rate of HIV on adults, indicates that the pandemic has increased from 2.6 per cent to 3.6 per cent in 2003, representing a 50 per cent rise since 2000.
Sex between males and females remains the most predominant mode of transmission in the country, accounting for almost 80 per cent of all infections, while mother-to-child transmission accounts for between five per cent and 15 per cent.
This was contained in a speech read on behalf of Professor Sakyi Awuku Amoa, Director General of the Ghana AIDS Commission at the national launch of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) HIV/AIDS Awareness project at Dormaa Ahenkro in the Brong Ahafo Region.
It was on the theme: "Protecting Teachers and Students from HIV/AIDS, A Must for Educational Development".
The project will among other things, focus on teachers and students who are living with HIV/AIDS and support them with education and counselling services.
Professor Amoa noted that teachers were critically assessing their role in the fight against the pandemic.
He said teachers wielded immense influence on the youth and were better placed to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the stigmatisation of People affected by the pandemic.
Mrs Portia Anafo, President of GNAT called for concerted efforts against HIV/AIDS.
The General Secretary of GNAT Mrs Irene Duncan Adanusa asked teachers to lead exemplary lives to boost the campaign against immoral lifestyles that leads to the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The GNAT Coordinator for Gender Programmes, Madam Helena Awurusa, said the Association initiated the awareness project in view of the horrific HIV/AIDS cases in Uganda, Zambia and South Africa.
She said in South Africa for instance 1000 teachers die every year of AIDS while 420 children lose one or both parents to the pandemic.
Madam Awurusa said a base line survey conducted by GNAT at Elubo; Obuasi; Aflao, Bole and Dormaa-Ahenkro had revealed that even though most teachers kept multiple sexual partners, they hardly use condoms while four per cent of students girls interviewed have either been raped or defiled by teachers or their colleagues
The Abakumahene (a sub-chief) in the Dormaa Traditional Council Nana Baffour Kofi Frimpong Ampem 11, who chaired the ceremony, described the project as timely.