Report reveals adolescent deaths from AIDS tripled since 2000

New data in a UNICEF AIDS report showed that adolescent deaths caused by complications related to AIDS have tripled since 2000, among other pertinent statistical findings.

“It is critical that young people who are HIV-positive have access to treatment, care and support,” Craig McClure, chief of UNICEF’s global HIV/AIDS program, said in a press release. “At the same time, those who are HIV-negative must have access to the knowledge and means to help them to stay that way.”

The 2015 Statistical Update on Children, Adolescents and AIDS report is a comprehensive set of data compiled by UNICEF. The report includes worldwide numbers related to the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015, countries providing pediatric HIV care and treatment, the demography and epidemiology of HIV among adolescents and other data.

According to the new data, about half of the adolescents living with HIV are from only six countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Mozambique and Tanzania. The data also confirmed that Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where HIV is most prevalent, with girls aged 15 to 19 years accounting for 70% of infections.

The UNICEF report also revealed that:

26 new HIV infections occur hourly;
1.3 million HIV infections among babies have been averted since 2000,
there has been a 60% reduction in AIDS-related deaths among children aged 4 years and younger;
less than half of children are tested for HIV before they are aged 2 years, and;
only 11% of adolescents, aged 11 to 15 years, in sub-Saharan Africa are tested for HIV.

“The gains we have made on preventing mother-to-child transmission are laudable, and to be celebrated,” McClure said. “But immediate investments are needed to get life-saving treatment to children and adolescents who are infected.”

For more information:
View the press release here.