2023-12-01 00:58:36
NEW YORK, December 1, 2023 – Nearly 98,000 adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 were infected with HIV in 2022, or 1,900 new infections every week, according to the latest UNICEF report entitled Global Snapshot on Children with HIV and AIDS (Global overview of the HIV and AIDS epidemic among children) released on the eve of World AIDS Day.
Although the total number of infections among girls aged 10 to 19 has almost halved since 2010 – from 190,000 to 98,000 new cases per year – girls were still at risk of contracting HIV in 2022. times higher than that of boys. Globally, 270,000 new cases of HIV infection were recorded last year among children and adolescents aged 0 to 19, bringing the total number of young people living with HIV to 2.6 million.
“It is unacceptable that adolescent girls, who should be preparing for their future, continue to pay the highest price for HIV,” said Anurita Bains, Deputy Head of the HIV/AIDS Section at UNICEF. “It is the responsibility of all of us, from the United Nations to communities, governments and organizations, to remove the barriers that make HIV a threat to their health and well-being. This includes ensuring that the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescent girls and young women are respected. »
Girls continue to be the main victims of the HIV epidemic, in particular because of gender inequalities, which often prevent them from having protected sex, and poverty, which results in alienation from communities from health centers, and lack of access to HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health programs.
In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV prevalence among adolescent girls and young women aged 10 to 24 is still more than three times higher than that among their male counterparts.
The latest data reveals that it is in Eastern and Southern Africa that the 0-19 age group continues to be most affected by HIV, ahead of the West and Central African regions. , East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia.
The report further highlights that children and young adolescents face considerable inequalities in access to treatment compared to adults. Indeed, worldwide, nearly a million HIV-positive people aged 0 to 19 are not receiving treatment, with more than half of them (around 60%) located in Eastern and Southern Africa. .
Burdensome diagnostic processes in children, special procedures for infant screening which are not always available in low- and middle-income countries, and lack of antiretroviral drugs suitable for younger age groups are all reasons why only 57% of children aged 0 to 14 years infected with HIV receive antiretroviral treatment, compared to 77% of people aged 15 and over.
Finally, progress in ending AIDS remains slow: globally, 99,000 children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 died from causes related to this disease in 2022, representing 15% of all deaths attributable to AIDS, even though this age group represents only 7% of people living with HIV.
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Notes to editors
*Table listing the number of HIV-positive children and adolescents by age group in the most affected regions:
Indicator by age
East and Southern Africa
West and Central Africa
East Asia and the Pacific
South Asia
Latin America and the Caribbean
Children aged 0 to 14
HIV-positive population
940 000
390 000
51 000
78 000
42 000
New cases of infection in 2022
60 000
50 000
6 600
5 800
5 300
Adolescents aged 15 to 19
HIV-positive population
690 000
180 000
48 000
58 000
43 000
New cases of infection in 2022
77 000
16 000
15 000
8 600
11 000
*Note: Figures may not add to total due to rounding.
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