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UNICEF STATISTICS
  UNICEF Data: Monitoring the Situation of Children and Women
About this area This part of the website presents the most up-to-date data and analysis on the situation of children.

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Turning the tide against AIDS will require more concentrated focus on adolescents and young people

Adolescents and young people represent a rapidly growing share of people living with HIV worldwide. In 2013 alone, 670,000 young people between the ages of 15 to 24 were newly infected with HIV, of whom 250,000 were adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19.  If current trends continue, hundreds of thousands more will become HIV-positive in the coming years.

As part of a global response, the UN General Assembly High-level Meeting on AIDS in 2011 reviewed progress on reversing the epidemic. A new Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS was drawn up, with the adoption of new commitments and bold new targets. One of them is to reduce sexual transmission of HIV by 50 per cent by 2015. This will not happen unless young people have the knowledge and skills to avoid risk behaviour.  

HIV PREVALENCE IN ADOLESCENTS

In 2013, about 2.1 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 were living with HIV worldwide. Adolescents account for about 6 per cent of all people living with HIV and about 12 per cent of new adult HIV infections. Regions with the highest numbers of HIV-positive adolescents are sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Of the 2.1 million adolescents living with HIV, about 1.4 million (64 per cent) live in Eastern and Southern Africa.  

Adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately affected by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in countries where HIV prevalence among young girls is greater than 15 per cent. In some of these countries, adolescent girls are two to three times more likely to be infected than boys of the same age group. 

In sub-Saharan Africa especially, adolescents are disproportionately affected by HIV
Estimated number of adolescents (ages 10─19) living with HIV, by region, 2013

Note: See map disclaimer

Source: UNAIDS 2013 HIV and AIDS estimates.

Nearly 80 per cent of all adolescents living with HIV are from 14 countries
Estimated percentage of adolescents (aged 10─19) living with HIV in 14 selected high-burden countries, 2013

Source: UNAIDS, 2013 HIV and AIDS estimates.

WHAT IS NEEDED TO TURN THE TIDE

To prevent the spread of new infections, adolescents and young people need accurate and relevant information about HIV, along with a safe environment in which they can talk openly about risk behaviour. This must be accompanied by access to voluntary counselling and testing, HIV education in schools, and the prevention of other sexually transmitted infections. 

Greater emphasis must also be placed on reaching adolescent boys and girls with HIV preventive care and treatment programmes. Emerging evidence suggests that young people living with HIV, especially adolescents, are less likely than others to receive health care that can keep them healthy and alive. In fact, all other age groups except adolescents experienced a nearly 40 per cent decline in AIDS-related deaths between 2005 and 2013, while adolescents were the only age group in which AIDS-related deaths have not declined.

AIDS-related deaths have declined in younger children and adults, but not among adolescents
Estimated number of AIDS-related deaths among children (ages 0─14), younger adolescents (ages 10─14), older adolescents (ages 15─19) and young people (ages 20─24), 2000─2013(aged 20─24), 2000─2012

Source: UNAIDS, 2013 HIV and AIDS estimates.

PROGRESS

According to UNAIDS estimates, HIV prevalence has fallen in many of the most severely affected countries because adolescents and young people are adopting safer sexual practices. In several countries, risk behaviour is on the decline, including the initiation of sex before age 15, sex with multiple partners and sex without condoms.

In countries with generalized epidemics, schools can be a critical venue for reaching adolescents with the information and skills they need to avoid infection. In fact, evidence shows that school-based sex education can be effective in changing the knowledge, attitudes and practices that lead to risk behaviour.

Preventing HIV in countries with low prevalence or where the epidemic is concentrated in specific populations is especially challenging since the spread of the virus is fuelled by high-risk, often stigmatized behaviour. People who engage in such behaviour tend to be young and include sex workers, people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men.  

For more data and analysis on HIV and AIDS in children, see UNICEF’s Children and AIDS: Sixth stocktaking report by clicking here.  

REFERENCES

UNICEF, Children and AIDS: Sixth stocktaking report, UNICEF, New York, 2013.

UNAIDS, Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, UNAIDS, Geneva, 2013.

UNAIDS, Global AIDS Response Progress Reporting 2014. Guidelines: Construction of core indicators for monitoring the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, Geneva, 2014.

UNICEF, Progress for Children: A report card on adolescents, No. 10, UNICEF New York, 2012.

UNICEF, Progress for Children: Achieving the MDGs with equity, No. 9, UNICEF New York, 2010.

UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2014 in Numbers: Every child counts – Revealing disparities, advancing children’s rights, UNICEF, New York, 2014.

UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with disabilities, UNICEF, New York, 2013.

UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, ILO, WHO and The World Bank, Opportunity in Crisis: Preventing HIV from early adolescence to young adulthood, UNICEF, New York, 2011.

WHO, Global Update on HIV Treatment 2013: Results, impact and opportunities, WHO, Geneva, 2013.

WHO, UNAIDS and UNICEF, Global HIV/AIDS Response: Epidemic update and health sector progress towards universal access – Progress report 2011, UNAIDS, Geneva, 2011.  

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Journal Article

Epidemiology of HIV and AIDS Among Adolescents: Current Status, Inequities, and Data Gaps

The JAIDS Supplement is a key source of evidence that will inform collective efforts towards ending the adolescent AIDS epidemic. The series presents a collection of reviews on adolescents analyzing current evidence and experience from programmes to highlight how to improve HIV-specific outcomes.

 

Notes on the Data

A lack of data at the country level continues to stymie an effective national response on how best to promote HIV prevention. Most countries have no or insufficient data on HIV prevalence and/or sexual behaviour trends among young people, including several countries with exceptionally high HIV prevalence in Southern Africa. This limits a more comprehensive global analysis of trends.

GLOBAL AIDS RESPONSE PROGRESS REPORTING/UNIVERSAL ACCESS

In an effort to harmonize data collection and minimize the reporting burden on countries, UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF have developed a joint reporting tool. The tool, which has been translated into several UN languages, combines the Global AIDS Response Progress Reporting and Universal Access reporting on the health sector response to HIV/AIDS. Countries that have not yet begun using the tool are advised to download the latest version. Accompanying guidelines support countries in using the tool and provide detailed descriptions of the indicators used.

    For more information, click here.
  • For Global AIDS Response Progress Reporting/Universal Access reporting guidelines, click here.
  • To view the latest version of the reporting tool, click here
  • To view a list of indicators, click here.
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SPECTRUM/EPP ESTIMATE MODELLING

UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF are using Futures Institute's modelling software, Spectrum/EPP, to generate estimates, which support policy decisions concerning public health. Spectrum includes modules for HIV estimates and projectors.

  • For more information, click here.
  • For estimates methodology, click here.

NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SURVEYS

Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), AIDS Indicator Surveys (AIS), reproductive health surveys, sexual behaviour surveys and other nationally representative surveys are currently used to collect data on HIV and AIDS.