For every three minutes that passes by, a teenage girl aged between 15 and 19 is infected with the virus that causes AIDs, a UN report highlighted on Wednesday.

Head of the United States Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore referred to the situation as a “crisis of health”.

“In most countries of the world, women and girls lack access to information, basic services, and the simple power to say no to unprotected sex.”

“HIV thrives among the most vulnerable and marginalized, which leaves teenage girls at the center of the crisis,” she said.

According to the data revealed at the 22nd International AIDs Conference in Amsterdam, girls and young women made up two-thirds of 15-to-19-year-olds infected with the deadly virus in 2017.

While AIDs-related deaths have decreased since 2010 in all other age groups, they have remained firmly constant among older adolescents aged between the ages of 15 to 19.

The data further showed that as of 2017, an estimated 1.2 million 15-19 years olds were living with HIV, three in five girls, said UNICEF.

“The epidemic’s spread among adolescents is fuelled by the advancement of early sex, including with older males, powerlessness in negotiating sex, forced sex, poverty, and lack of access to confidential counseling and testing services,” it further highlighted.

According to IAS President, Linda-Gail Bekker, “in young people, the AIDs epidemic is far from over.”

“In some parts of the world, we are about to go into the youth bulge, so we’ll have more young people than we have ever had in the world before,” she said while speaking to AFP.

“Young people are now grown up, they are incredibly mobile, they are moving, and they have forgotten that HIV remains a risk factor… we can’t let up on that message, otherwise, it just blows up again.”

AFP