Adolescent HIV treatment

Fast facts:

• Of the 1.71 million [confidence bounds: 1.24 million–2.21 million] adolescents aged 10–19 living with HIV globally, only 59 per cent, or 1 million, were receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2021.
• In the 35 UNICEF HIV priority countries, 61 per cent of adolescents aged 10–19 years were receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2021.

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 5 per cent of all people living with HIV, 11 per cent of new HIV infections and 5 per cent of all AIDS-related deaths. In 2021, about 1 million adolescents 10–19 years, or 59 per cent of adolescents living with HIV globally, received antiretroviral treatment.

Antiretroviral treatment coverage was 58 and 60 per cent among adolescent girls and boys, respectively. In order to reach the 95-95-95 targets by 2025, 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 Middle East and North Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean (both 42 per cent) and the highest in South Asia (64 per cent). In 2021, about 61 per cent of adolescents living with HIV aged 10–19 years in the 35 UNICEF HIV priority countries received antiretroviral therapy.

Globally, antiretroviral treatment coverage does not vary too drastically among adolescent boys and girls 10–19 years. In Eastern and Southern Africa and the Middle East and North Africa, adolescent boys 10–19 years have higher antiretroviral treatment coverage rates compared to adolescent girls 10–19 years. On the other hand, in South Asia, East Asia and Pacific, West and Central Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean adolescent girls 10–19 years have higher antiretroviral treatment coverage than adolescent boys 10–19 years.

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