HIV burden highest among adolescent girls, women – UNAIDS
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- It also notes that since 2010, the decline in new HIV infection has been much sharper among adolescent boys and young men (56 percent) than among adolescent girls and young women (42 percent) or older women.
Adolescent girls and women are the most affected by HIV in eastern and southern Africa region where Uganda falls, a report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS) indicates .
“Women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, accounting for 63 percent of the region’s new HIV infections in 2021. New HIV infections are three times higher among adolescent girls and young women (aged 15 to 24 years) than among males of the same age,” the report, which was released yesterday, reads in part.
It also notes that since 2010, the decline in new HIV infection has been much sharper among adolescent boys and young men (56 percent) than among adolescent girls and young women (42 percent) or older women.
“Age of consent laws also impede efforts to ensure adolescent girls and young women have access to HIV testing and sexual and reproductive health services,” the report adds.
Ms Winnie Byanyima, the UNAIDS executive director, in a statement yesterday said: “These figures are about political will. Do we care about empowering and protecting our girls? Do we want to stop Aids deaths among children? Do we put saving lives ahead of criminalisation? If we do, then we must get the AIDS response back on track.”
According to UNAIDS, the response to HIV is facing serious challenges, including the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted services and led some countries to reallocate their limited health resources away from the HIV response.
The agency also mentioned drought and flooding which have been experienced in Uganda as impediment to HIV service provision and affect the commitment of countries to continue prioritising the HIV response.
A total of 20,000 young people aged 15-24 contracted HIV in 2021 and of this, 15,000 were girls, according to UNaids.
This contrast with the estimated 14,000 infections among young people that the Ministry of Health recorded in 2020, the latest statistics.
The Covid-induced prolonged closure of schools caused an increase in teenage pregnancy cases, the vice health experts say increased the number of new infections among them.
Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, the director of Uganda Virus Research Institute, told this newspaper earlier that the prevalence is higher in women because of greater risk of exposure to infected partners and genetic predisposition.
“The issue of women having more HIV than men has to do with culture, economy and biological factors which predispose them to the infection. Biologically, it is easier for a man to transmit the virus to a woman during intercourse than for a woman to transmit to a man,” he said.
The UNAIDS statement indicates that globally, the number of new infections dropped only 3.6 percent between 2020 and 2021, the smallest annual decline in new HIV infections since 2016. According to UNAIDS, “in eastern and southern Africa, rapid progress from previous years significantly slowed in 2021.”
Ms Byanyima said this data shows the global Aids response in severe danger.
“If we are not making rapid progress, then we are losing ground, as the pandemic thrives amidst Covid-19, mass displacement, and other crises. Let us remember the millions of preventable deaths we are trying to stop,” she said.
