Children and AIDS (UNICEF report)
Read the first page of UNICEF's Children and AIDS: Fifth Stocktaking Report 2010 below:
"In 2001, 5.7 million young people aged 15–24 were estimated to be living with HIV. At the end of 2009, that number had dropped to 5.0 million. Further, an estimated 890,000 new infections occurred among young people aged 15–24 in 2009. The significant decline in HIV prevalence among young people is linked to clear trends towards safer behaviours and practices including delayed age at first sex, reduction in the number of partners and increased condom use.
In 2010, UNAIDS reported a decline in prevalence among young people of more than 25 per cent in 22 key countries in sub-Saharan Africa between 2001 and 2008. In most parts of the world, new HIV infections are steadily falling or stabilizing. These trends of decline in prevalence among young people are not universal, however. An estimated 80 per cent of all infections in young people globally are in 20 countries spanning many regions of the world and representing a diversity of epidemic settings. In nine countries in Southern Africa, at least 1 in 20 young people is living with HIV, and in Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, more than 1 in 10 young people are living with HIV.
Worldwide, more than 60 per cent of all young people living with HIV are female.58 Young women still shoulder the greater burden of infection, and in many countries women face their greatest risk of infection before age 25. UNAIDS co-sponsors recently agreed on a business case to advance prevention efforts among young people, a key part of the UNAIDS Outcome Framework set forth in 2009. The business case stresses the need for simultaneous action to improve young people’s comprehensive knowledge of HIV and their access to condoms, HIV testing, and counselling on risk reduction..."
