The Dormaa Central Municipal Health Directorate in the Bono Region has rubbished information circulating that there is a surge in HIV and AIDS cases among pregnant women in the municipality.

The Dormaa Central Municipal Disease Control Officer, Daniel Kwame Owusu Amponsah, described the social media video indicating surge in the number of HIV and AIDS cases in the area as a false alarm that the general public needs to disregard and treat with contempt.  

“As a Directorate, we wish to inform the public that the content of the video which depicts a presenter interviewing an officer of the Dormaa Central Municipal Directorate is fake news,” Mr Amponsah emphasised.

In an interview at Dormaa-Ahenkro, the Disease Control Officer explained that a staff member of the municipal health directorate, Augustina Gyan, misconducted herself by speaking to a radio presenter on a subject which is not her assigned responsibility.

“She is not the right person to speak on that subject and when she was confronted by the radio station for an interview, she was supposed to refer the matter to the appropriate authority which she failed to do and that was why she misled the public.

"Even though she is part of the Health Promotion team at the Directorate assigned with the responsibility of educating and enlightening the populace on health related issues on Dormaa Fm, a local radio station, she completely failed to notify her superiors about an impending interview with a radio station”, Mr Amponsah stated.

He further indicated that though new HIV and AIDS cases have been recorded, they were not as alarming as projected in the said video, adding that the directorate is yet to sanction the personnel for the unprofessional conduct.

“We have received many calls from traditional authorities and residents home and abroad expressing deep worry about the situation since the video went viral and this is why we have taken the trouble to clear the air,” he added.