Making sense of HIV prevalen ce and

Making sense of HIV prevalen ce and
behaviour change trends for young people
HIV prevalence data and behavioural trends could be compared in 11 countries.
Eight countries—Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, United Republic
of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe—showed a favourable drop in both HIV
prevalence and at least two behavioural indicators for either men or women. Declines
in HIV prevalence are likely to be the result of drops in HIV incidence. Mathematical
modelling suggests that trends in HIV prevalence among young pregnant women
mirror trends among all men and women in the same age group. In two countries—
Botswana and Zimbabwe—significant declines of more than 25% HIV prevalence
were observed among women in antenatal clinic surveys as well as in populationbased
surveys. In Zimbabwe, the decline was also seen in a separate cohort study in
Manicaland province. Together these data strongly suggest that new HIV infections
have dropped significantly in the country. Similar trends were seen in other countries,
but only from a single source of data. For example, in Zambia and the United
Republic of Tanzania an independent application of a mathematical model of HIV
prevalence data from repeat national surveys showed significant declines in incidence
among young women and men.
Conclusion
UNAIDS has made empowering young people to protect themselves from HIV a
priority area. It calls on countries to implement a comprehensive set of programmes
that put young people’s leadership at the centre of national responses, to provide
rights-based sexual and reproductive health education and services and to empower
young people to prevent sexual and other transmission of HIV infection among
their peers. This can be achieved by ensuring access to HIV testing and prevention
efforts with and for young people in the context of sexuality education and by
ensuring enabling legal environments, education and employment opportunities to
reduce vulnerability to HIV.
Young people have shown that they can be change agents in the prevention revolution.