AIDS and Population

  AIDS and Population

  AIDS and % Below Poverty Line            

Tables, Maps & Graphs

 The following table is a summary of the various indicators and their correlation coefficients with the AIDS rates.

Table 1

From the above, it is pretty evident that regional population correlates strongly with the AIDS rate. The Ashanti Region, the most populated region in Ghana, has the highest cumulative AIDS rate (map 1). With a correlation coefficient of 0.714202648, this correlation suggests that regional population is directly proportional to the AIDS rate; that is, the greater the populace, the greater the AIDS rate (table 2, graph 1, map 2). The Greater Accra Region, being the second most populated region in Ghana should therefore naturally follow suit; however, it doesn’t. It’s the Eastern region, the third most populated region in the country, which has the second highest AIDS rate (table 2). This is so because the Eastern Region, with its high mountain ranges and captivating scenery, has over time evolved into a popular vacation spot during national festivities like Christmas and Easter, for tourists and natives alike. As a region which is about 70% rural (table 5), and with 44% of its population earning less than $100 a year (poverty line; table 3), it will be very easy for a young sexually active man on vacation to woo any poor ignorant girl into bed with him.

            In addition to this, the gradual erosion of vital cultural values (like the keeping of one’s virginity until marriage) by the daily media onslaught of western culture, especially western hip hop and literature, on unsuspecting Ghanaians has helped the disease spread like wildfire. In Ghana, unlike in the United States, most parents never talk to their children about sex. If nude images appear on TV when the whole family is behind the set, parents drive their children off to bed with the excuse that such images are for grown-ups only. With this idea in mind, most children grow up feeling that their parents are keeping something good away from them, and as such easily fall prey to the so-called sexual freedom depicted in the media. This single factor, I daresay, accounts for majority, if not all, of the abnormalities associated with the correlations in table 1 above. This is because regions with very strong cultural values, like the Volta Region, have so far been able to keep at bay the negative influences associated with western culture but have managed to embrace the positive. Therefore, despite the fact that over 60% of the region is rural (table 5) and that its population density of 109 people per square kilometer (table 4) is the fourth highest in the nation, it still has the fourth lowest syphilis prevalence rate (table 6) and the lowest cumulative AIDS rate (table 2).

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