Preventing Infection among adolescents and young people

Preventing Infection among adolescents and young people

In 2009, an estimated five million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 were living with HIV.

UNAIDS reported a decrease of more than 25% in HIV prevalence among those aged 15 to 24 between 2001 and 2008; the number of new infections in most parts of the world is falling or stabilising, according to UNAIDS .

In 2009 there were 890,000 new infections among 15 to 24 year olds.

Girls and women represent over 60% of all young people living with HIV globally, whereas in sub-Saharan Africa it is close to 70%.

“We need to address gender inequalities, including those that place women and girls at disproportionate risk to HIV and other adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes,” said Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO. “While we are encouraged by a decline in HIV incidence among young people of more than 25%, we must do everything possible to sustain and increase such positive trends in order to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support.”

In nine countries in Southern Africa, it is estimated that at least one in 20 people aged 15 to 24 is living with HIV; in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland over one in 10 is.

The report stresses the need to recognise and address the realities of new infections in young people – sex, sexuality and injecting drug use.

Legal and policy barriers mean that adolescents may need parental consent before testing, so delaying or preventing testing and timely treatment.

Protection, care and support for children affected by HIV and AIDS

A median of 11% of households caring for orphans and vulnerable children between 2005 and 2009 received any kind of external support. The continuing poor economic climate adds to the additional stresses that poverty brings to the wellbeing of children affected by HIV.

The report highlights how child-sensitive social protection is a key and cost-effective intervention in reaching children affected by HIV; this can include:

• social transfers (cash and in-kind transfers and vouchers)

• improved school attendance

• stregthening of community systems

• investment in national monitoring and evaluation.

“We must increase investments in young people’s education and health, including sexual and reproductive health, to prevent HIV infections and advance social protection,” Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, said. “Reaching marginalized young people, including vulnerable adolescent girls and those who are not in school, must remain a priority.”

Call to action

• Change the PMTCT focus from coverage of ARV prophylaxis to the health of mothers and the HIV-free survival of children.

• Make exclusive breastfeeding safe and sustainable.

• Identify HIV-positive newborns, children and young people without delay and provide rapid access to ART for those eligible.

• Make children and adolescents central to the development and implementation of promising new prevention initiatives.

• Redress low levels of knowledge about HIV.

• Increase access of children and adolescents living on the margins of society to health, education and social welfare services.

• Provide economic support to poor and vulnerable women, children and adolescents.

• Prevent violence and abuse of women and girls and enforce laws against it.