This was disclosed by the Proramme Manager of the National STIs and HIV/AIDS Control Programme, Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo.

But despite the alarming record, some residents of Kumasi have doubted the reality of the disease.

Speaking to Bright Emmanuel Quaicoe, some of the locals in the Ashanti regional capital said they are unfazed by the increasing number of infections.

One of the residents, in his submissions said, the disease is a spiritual disease which cannot affect them.

“It is a spiritual disease. It is not everybody who’ll contract it. Because as for AIDS, we’ve been in this township for long. But even malaria finds it difficult to attack us.

If you pray and worship God well, you will be immune. Because when a man sleeps with a woman, it makes God happy. God then sees the benefits of his creations”, he said.

Another resident added that, as far as he is concerned, a person cannot be infected if he has intercourse with a woman who wears waist beads.

“I’m actually worried. But as for AIDS, I think that if you sleep with a girl who wears beads, you won’t be infected. So I think we should treat is as a normal disease. Every woman should wear beads to reduce the rate of infections”, he said.