Less than 25% of young people have access to HIV testing

Less than 25% of adolescents and young people have access to a HIV testing in Latin America and the Caribbean, a situation that worries Unicef, who estimated 11,000 new cases of infection in this population in the region every year.

“Although there has not been a significant increase in HIV infections in the region, we are concerned that adolescents and young people are becoming infected with the virus without knowing it,” he said this friday UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Garry Conille.

The clerk explained it “less than 25% of adolescents and young people have access to HIV testing” in the region, “at the same time access to sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents is scarce”.

The new publication is in this context ‘Unicef ​​about children with HIV and AIDS’ The number of new daily cases of infection among adolescents and young people between the ages of 10 and 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean is estimated at around 30 and around 11,000 per year.

To a large extent, new infections in this age group are concentrated in men, said the United Nations entity dedicated to children, which stated that between 2010 and 2021, the reduction in HIV infections was 25% for adolescent girls and only 3% among adolescents.

Girls, adolescents and women, the most vulnerable
Despite this, girls, adolescents and women continue to be the most affected by the HIV epidemic, due, among other things, to gender inequality, poverty and lack of access to HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health programs.

“The latest UNICEF data also estimates that in Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 34,000 pregnant women need treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus,” the regional office of the United Nations entity, whose headquarters is in Panama, is indicated.

Challenges of the fight against AIDS
Unicef ​​has warned that the younger population also faces major challenges in the fight against AIDS, as only 39% of boys and girls between the ages of 0 and 14 received antiretroviral treatment in 2023, according to UN data.

This is due to limited access to services and care, resulting in half of HIV-infected children who do not receive timely treatment dying before the age of two, while 8 out of 10 die before the age of five.

Migrants increasingly distant from the HIV program
Unicef ​​also pointed out that in the context of the migration crisis that the American continent is experiencing, this mobile population is increasingly moving away from HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) programs due to the high level of stigma associated with the virus. , fear of deportation and limited access to prevention and treatment services.

Gaps in service coverage between migrants and local populations are exacerbated when health systems in host countries do not guarantee uninsured people access to health and laboratory services, UNICEF added.

More data and information for HIV/AIDS prevention
Among the actions needed to end pediatric AIDS and protect women, children and adolescents and the most vulnerable populations from HIV, Unicef ​​encourages governments to generate and use data for evidence and action on the problem.

Also leverage HIV-related resources to address gaps; raise the awareness of the population, especially adolescents, about the transmission of the virus and its prevention; and establish differentiated, free health services, without legal barriers to access that facilitate information.