Opportunity in Crisis - joint publication by UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, ILO, WHO and The World Bank presents data on adolescents and HIV for the first time

Every day an estimated 2500 young people are newly infected with HIV, according to a global report on HIV prevention launched today - Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV from early adolescence to young adulthood.  While HIV prevalence has declined slightly among young people, young women and adolescent girls face a disproportionately high risk of infection due to biological vulnerability, social inequality and exclusion.  

For the first time the report presents data on HIV infections among young people and highlights the risks adolescents face as they transition to adulthood. The report identifies factors that elevate their risk of infection as well as opportunities to strengthen prevention services and challenge harmful social practices.

“For many young people, HIV infection is the result of neglect, exclusion, and violations that occur with the knowledge of families, communities, social and political leaders. This report urges leaders at all levels to build a chain of prevention to keep adolescents and young people informed, protected and healthy,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.  “UNICEF is committed to this cause. We must protect the second decade of life, so that the journey from childhood to adulthood is not derailed by HIV – a journey that is especially fraught for girls and young women.”

According to Opportunity in Crisis, people aged 15-24 accounted for 41 per cent of new infections among adults over the age of 15 in 2009. Worldwide, an estimated 5 million (4.3 million to 5.9 million) young people in that age group were living with HIV in 2009. Among the 10 to 19 year age group, new data shows, an estimated 2 million adolescents (1.8 million to 2.4 million) are living with HIV. Most of them live in sub-Saharan Africa, most are women, and most do not know their status. Globally, young women make up more than 60 per cent of all young people living with HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa that rate jumps to 72 per cent.

In  Papua New Guinea (PNG),  where there is now a generalised HIV epidemic, Opportunity in Crisis shows almost a quarter (23%) of those living with HIV are in the 15-24 age-group (with a higher number of women than men).

In PNG, and other countries with generalised epidemics, young women and girls are at greater risk of HIV infection than young men and boys. The report points to the need to change social norms and foster healthy attitudes and behaviours to ensure greater gender quality and protection for them.

Communities, leaders and young people all have a role to play in changing the behaviours that place young people at risk and creating an environment where they may thrive. In PNG, for instance, a rural hospital in the small town of Mingende is taking a new approach to stopping mother-to-child transmission. Work at this UNICEF NZ funded project includes community outreach to raise awareness, voluntary testing and counselling for couples and families as well as medication and support for mothers. In 2009, six years after the programme started, none of the 25 babies born to HIV-infected mothers had tested positive for HIV.
Community-led efforts to change social attitudes and norms have also been effective in communities in Tanzania, where the image of men seeking relations with younger women and girls was effectively turned into an image of ridicule.

Worldwide many young people driven by economic duress, exploitation, social exclusion and lack of family support turn to commercial sex and injecting drug use. They face an extremely high risk of infection as well as general stigma and discrimination for engaging in such behaviors. The very same young people most often lack access to HIV prevention and protection services.  For national HIV responses to be effective, governments need to address the underlying problems of poverty, exclusion and gender inequality that threaten the health of future generations. Keeping equity as a priority helps to ensure those hardest to reach are not last in line.

 “Young people are not only tomorrow’s leaders, they are the leaders of today,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “If young people are empowered to protect themselves against HIV, they can lead us to an HIV free generation.”

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