Adolescent HIV treatment

Fast facts:

• Of the 1.57 million [1.2 million-2.0 million] adolescents aged 10-19 living with HIV globally, only 64 per cent, or 1.1 million, were receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2024.
• Of the 3.2 million [2.2 – 4.1 million] adolescents and young people aged 15-24 living with HIV globally, only 59 per cent, or 1.9 million, were receiving live-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2024.

According to WHO and UNAIDS, HIV among children and adolescents presents unique features that affect how diagnosis, treatment and care is provided across the age continuum of 0–19 years. Optimal antiretroviral drug regimens may require changes as children age and grow. Countries need to adapt and tailor service delivery between younger adolescents (10–14 years old) and older adolescents (15–19 years old) due to significant differences in health-seeking behaviour, number acquiring HIV infection and health outcomes including AIDS-related causes. Further, models of care to retain children and adolescents in treatment and ensure that they have suppressed viral loads must leverage different opportunities and address various challenges over the life-course. It is a well-known fact that children and adolescents have lower reported treatment coverage, adherence to treatment and viral suppression rates than older age groups.

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Globally, adolescents 10-19 years account for about 4 per cent of all people living with HIV, 11 per cent of new HIV infections and 4 per cent of all AIDS-related deaths. In 2024, about 1 million adolescents 10-19 years, or 65 per cent of adolescents living with HIV globally, received antiretroviral treatment.

Globally, adolescents and young people aged 15-24 years account for about 8 per cent of all people living with HIV, 28 per cent of new HIV infections and 6 per cent of all AIDS-related deaths. In 2024, about 1.9 million adolescents and young people 15-24 years, or 59 per cent of adolescents living with HIV globally, received antiretroviral treatment.

Antiretroviral treatment coverage was 64 percent among adolescent girls and 65 percent among adolescent boys aged 10-19 years and 64 and 57 percent among adolescent girls and young women and adolescent boys and young men, respectively. In order to reach the 95-95-95 targets by 2030, there is an urgent need to ramp up treatment efforts among adolescents.

Antiretroviral treatment coverage among adolescents 10-19 years varies across regions, with the lowest treatment coverage in South Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (31 and 43 per cent, respectively) and the highest in Eastern and Southern Africa (70 per cent).

Among adolescents and young people aged 15-24 years also varies across regions, with the lowest treatment coverage in the Middle East and North Africa (36 per cent) and the highest in Eastern and Southern Africa and West and Central Africa (68 and 63 per cent, respectively).

Globally, antiretroviral treatment coverage does not vary too drastically among adolescent boys and girls 10-19 years. Across all regions, the largest discrepancy between adolescent girls and boys is in South Asia the Middle East and North Africa where ART coverage is 13 percentage points higher among adolescent girls compared to adolescent boys. Among adolescents and young people, globally there is variation among girls and boys, with adolescent girls and young women having higher ART coverage compared to adolescent boys and young men by 7 percentage points. Such variation is also seen across all regions except for Eastern and Southern Africa where the coverage is comparable.

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