World AIDS Day 2016: Urgent action needed for adolescents
If current rates of HIV infection persist, there will be 3.5 million new adolescent cases by 2030
In 2016, 120,000 children under the age of 14 died of AIDS related causes, and 18 children were infected with HIV every single hour. If current trends persist, there will be 3.5 million new adolescent HIV infections by 2030.
The 2017 UNICEF Statistical Update on Children and AIDS warns that the outlook for hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents is bleak unless action is accelerated.
Statistical update 2017: English | Français
The facts
- 1.4 million pregnant women and 2.1 million adolescents living with HIV.
- 18 children are infected with HIV every hour.
- 160,000 new childhood HIV infections aged 0-14 in 2016.
- 120,000 AIDS-related deaths of children under 14 in 2016.
- Around 2 million new HIV infections among children have been averted since 2000.
- 30 adolescents are infected with HIV every hour.
- 260,000 new HIV infections among adolescents in 2016.
- 55,000 AIDS-related deaths among adolescents (10-19 years) in 2016.
- Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about 9 in 10 of women and children living with HIV and 9 in 10 of adolescent AIDS-related deaths.
In a world where life-saving treatment exists, children should not be dying because of AIDS.
What needs to happen
In order to end AIDS in children, the remaining 57 per cent of children (1.2 million) who are not on treatment need to be identified and started on lifelong treatment as a matter of urgency.
Preventing new adolescent HIV infections will require bold and innovative programmes, tailored to the specific needs of the local epidemic.
Programmes should focus on improved combination prevention efforts, including biomedical, behavioural and structural interventions with components such as HIV self-testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis, voluntary medical male circumcision, condoms, harm reduction and interventions to end gender-based violence.
These interventions must be prioritized for adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa, and the most-at-risk adolescent population groups in the rest of the world.
