CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) have been a major health problem worldwide. Many world health bodies since the discovery of HIV and AIDS have been reporting frightening increases in the prevalence rates of the virus and the syndrome. According to the UNAIDS (2004) global summary of the AIDS Epidemic, 39.4 million people worldwide were living with HIV and AIDS. This body reported categorically that half of newly HIV infected persons who were about 15,000 to 16,000 per day were aged 15-24 years. This alarming rate of spread of HIV and AIDS also include Ghana. A publication in “The Mirror” a local newspaper in June, 2002 reported that cumulative AIDS cases in Ghana indicate that about a third of those with HIV and AIDS are in their 20s with most of them having contracted the disease during their early adolescent years. This is primarily due to their unguided sexual behaviour. In Nigeria, 2.7 million people are also living with the virus and the syndrome (Akanni, 2000). It has also been reported in Gambia that, out of every ten teachers that die, seven die from AIDS. In Zambia, AIDS claims about three teachers daily (Bank of Ghana Newsletter, 2001).