Adolescent HIV prevention

Last update: July 2023 | Next update: July 2024

To ramp up our efforts in the fight against AIDS, there is a need for more concentrated focus on adolescents and young people

Adolescents and young people represent a growing share of people living with HIV worldwide. In 2022 alone, 480,000 [255,000-760,000] young people between the ages of 10 to 24 were newly infected with HIV, of whom 140,000 [35,000-250,000] were adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19. To compound this, most recent data indicate that only 25 per cent of adolescent girls and 17 per cent of adolescent boys aged 15-19 in Eastern and Southern Africa – the region most affected by HIV – have been tested for HIV in the past 12 months and received the result of the last test. The testing rates in West and Central Africa are even lower. If current trends continue, there will still be some 183,000 annual new HIV infections among adolescents in 2030.

 

 

Data sources + methodology

Global AIDS monitoring 2023

In order to monitor the HIV response and progress towards achieving global goals, countries submit national and subnational data on a host of indicators to the Global AIDS Monitoring (GAM) system. Annual submissions are reviewed and validated. Data consist of programmatic data for HIV prevention, testing and treatment. Other indicators require data from population-based surveys and surveys focused on key populations at risk of HIV infection.

For more information, click here.

UNAIDS Estimates and Spectrum’s AIDS Impact Model

Each year countries update their AIDS Impact Model in Avenir Health’s Spectrum software to develop the latest estimates for the HIV epidemic. Supported by UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF these estimates are used to inform programme and policy decisions for HIV epidemic response.

Useful links:

Methods for HIV modelling are developed by the UNAIDS Reference Group on Estimates, Modelling and Projections.

All available data on HIV estimates are available at aidsinfo.unaids.org.

Nationally representative surveys

Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), AIDS Indicator Surveys (AIS), Population-based HIV Impact Assessments (PHIA) reproductive health surveys, sexual behaviour surveys and other nationally representative surveys are currently used to collect data on HIV and AIDS.