High HIV infection among young women; teenagers concerned—UNICEF
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has issued a warning about the high prevalence of new HIV infections among young women and teenage girls, underlining the lack of access to prevention and treatment.
UNICEF released an analysis ahead of World AIDS Day on Saturday, predicting that 96,000 teenage females and 41,000 adolescent boys aged 15 to 19 would contract HIV in 2023, representing seven out of ten new infections among adolescents. According to the most recent data available, nine out of ten new HIV infections among adolescents aged 15 to 19 in Sub-Saharan Africa occur among girls.
“Increasing access to treatment and preventative programs does not entirely help children and adolescents.
Anurita Bains, UNICEF Associate Director for HIV/AIDS, stated, “However, we must prioritize children living with HIV when investing resources and efforts to scale up treatment, including the development of innovative testing technologies.”
Antiretroviral treatment (ART) is available to 77 percent of HIV-positive adults, while only 57 percent of children under the age of 14 and 65 percent of adolescents aged 15 to 19 have access to life-saving medications. Children under the age of 14 account for just 3% of the HIV-positive population, yet they will account for 12%, or 76,000, of all AIDS-related fatalities in 2023.
According to the UNAIDS study, an estimated 1.3 million persons would be infected with HIV in 2023, three times the amount required to reach the United Nations’ (UN) objective of eliminating AIDS as a public health issue by 2030. Based on data released ahead of World AIDS Day on Sunday, 630,000 people died from AIDS-related diseases last year, the lowest number since a record of 2.1 million in 2004.
Antiretroviral therapy, which can lower the quantity of virus in patients’ blood, has played a significant role in this development.
The study found that about 9.3 million of the over 40 million people living with HIV around the world are still not getting treatment.