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Steve Kyeremeh Atuahene, Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission has bemoaned the rise of transactional sex among most Ghanaian youth.
According to him, the current rise in HIV/AIDS numbers in the country can be attributed to this.
In an interview on Accra based TV3, Mr Atuahene attributed to some new lifestyles he said have been adopted by women, predisposing them to contract the virus more than their male counterparts.
“Majority of young women are into transactional sex; that is where they think that whenever they have sex with someone they should get something back, it can be money, it can be a gift, it can be any other thing in exchange for sex,” he said.
He said, young people have adopted lifestyles that do not support the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“Young people have adopted new behaviors. Apart from the Sugar Daddy-Sugar Mummy syndrome, we also have what we call friends-with-benefit, where they will have girlfriends, boyfriends and the idea, is that if you sleep with me you’ll have to give me money,” he explained.
The Ghana AIDS Commission boss believes that if there is a change in these behaviours “we can make a headway towards achieving epidemic control and ending Aids”.
Per the records of the Commission, over 12,000 people perished from HIV-related causes in 2020 while over 5,000 young people contracted the virus. The data revealed that more women were infected than men.
Source: Pulse Ghana
