The challenges of treating HIV-infected adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents and young people represent a growing share of people living with HIV worldwide. In 2020 alone, 410,000 [194,000-690,000] young people between the ages of 10 to 24 were newly infected with HIV, of whom 150,000 [44,000-310,000] were adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19. To compound this, most recent data indicate that only 25 per cent of adolescent girls and 17 per cent of adolescent boys aged 15-19 in Eastern and Southern Africa – the region most affected by HIV – have been tested for HIV in the past 12 months and received the result of the last test. The testing rates in West and Central Africa and South Asia are even lower. If current trends continue, hundreds of thousands more will become HIV-positive in the coming years, and without knowing their status, adolescents will miss out on life-saving treatment. Additionally, a large population of children infected with HIV perinatally over the last decade are growing into adolescence.