Promoting the Prevention of HIV in Adolescents and Young People

It is estimated that more than 10 million young people between ages 15 and 24 are infected with HIV. Prevalence rates are highest in sub-Saharan Africa and higher among young women than young men in the region. In Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya, for example, there are five infected young women for every infected young man; corresponding ratios are 4 to 1 in Uganda and 3 to 1 in several countries, including Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Young people, especially young women, do not have the knowledge they need to protect themselves against HIV transmission.

Primary prevention is key to an effective response to the AIDS epidemic. The chain of new infections will not be broken without comprehensive prevention strategies for keeping adolescents and young people free of infection by building their capacities to avoid behaviours that put them at risk.

New evidence suggests that declining HIV prevalence in Kenya, in urban areas of Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi and Zimbabwe, and in rural areas of Botswana has resulted from the adoption of safer sexual behaviours by young people.

UNICEF and its partners have been pioneering in their approaches to reaching out adolescents and young people with life skills and prevention information. In Jamaica, the Bashy Bus travels along major travel routes and high-risk areas and uses high-energy engagement to encourage young people to get tested and learn to protect themselves. The “My Future is My Choice” programme in Namibia, developed by UNICEF, the Government of Namibia and the University of Maryland, is now part of the secondary school curriculum. HIV-transmission rates are dropping among 20- to 24-year old Namibians, many of whom would have taken “My Future is My Choice”.