Aids now leading cause of death among African teenagers

AIDS is the number one cause of death among adolescents in Africa and the second leading cause of death among adolescents globally.

According to UNAIDS, 15 million people are accessing life-saving HIV treatment, new HIV infections have been reduced by 35 percent since 2000 and AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 42 percent since the peak in 2004. By similarly expanding access to testing, we can help diagnose more people living with HIV, giving them an opportunity to start treatment and take care of their health and prevent further transmission to others. However, despite this progress, almost 2.6 million children under 15 are still living with HIV, of which only one in three are on treatment.

The county says World AIDS Day is observed annually on December 1 and is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of the HIV infection.

A total of 142,000 people were newly diagnosed with HIV past year, the highest figure since reporting began in the 1980s.

Many of them survived into their teenage years without knowing their HIV status.

The anti-retroviral medicines given to pregnant women have also spurred a “60% reduction in AIDS-related deaths among children under 4 years of age since 2000”, according to UNICEF.

Data contained in the Statistical Update from UNICEF on Children, Adolescents and AIDS, less than 50% children under 2 months of age get tested for HIV. However, he said more investments should be made in order to save the lives of teenagers who are suffering from the disease.

Half of these live in only six countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Mozambique and Tanzania. “We must now step up our efforts to reach the missing half with testing and treatment and the prevention of new infections, or we will miss the unique opportunity to end the AIDS epidemic within a generation”, she added.

World Health Organization global HIV prevention and treatment guidelines urge for early treatment of HIV infection to improve the prognosis of the infected individual and to prevent onward HIV transmission.

The fact is that nobody should be dying of AIDS today, nobody should even be infecting others: as long as you are on dutiful, daily and lifelong treatment, you have close to zero risk of passing on the virus to your partner or unborn child. These 11 co-sponsors from different parts of the UN family now work together in a cohesive and broad-based partnership against the epidemic – making it the first ever, and the most innovative multi-agency program of the United Nations.

The experts noted that the infection rate also increased in adolescents who were not born with the virus.