Global HIV infecting youth - 1 every 14 seconds - October, 2003

From the U.N. State of World Population Report

This report is a wake-up call. It is a wake-up call to listen to young people and acknowledge their needs. It is a wake-up call to increase funding and expand information and services to young people. It is a wake-up call to support them so that they can lead healthy, productive and dignified lives. It's written by Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund.

Today, there are more young people than ever before—one in five people on Earth are adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19—and they face serious risks to their health and well-being. These risks include HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, early pregnancy and marriage, and pervasive gender discrimination and violence. All of these factors are aggravated by poverty. Today, 238 million youth live in poverty, on less than $1 a day.

How well societies address these issues will have major impacts on health, development and human rights, not only today but also well into the future.

Today, a staggering 50 per cent of the world’s population is under 25 years of age. Young people are growing up in a rapidly changing world. Many are bombarded with sexually explicit images. And, yet, they lack basic information on reproductive health and how to protect themselves from early pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.

AIDS has become a disease of young people, fuelled by poverty, gender inequality and a severe lack of information and services. Today, half of all new HIV infections occur among youth aged 15 to 24. An estimated 6,000 youth a day become infected with HIV/AIDS -- one every 14 seconds.

The world can no longer afford to take half measures as AIDS wipes out growing numbers of the new generation. This is not just a public health issue. This is a global catastrophe that demands urgent global action.

The State of World Population 2003 report stresses that education, information and health services are urgently needed in all regions of the world. And I would like to stress that studies repeatedly show that sexuality education does not lead to promiscuous behaviour. On the contrary, it leads young people to take positive action to protect themselves, and often leads young people to abstain or delay their first sexual experience.

Many adolescents and young people are married. In some countries, most girls are married before the age of 18. Globally, there are 82 million girls aged 10 to 17 who will marry before they turn 18. Every year, 14 million teenage girls give birth, and this brings with it great risk. Girls in their late teenage years are twice as likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than are young women in their 20s. So, this report calls for expanded health services for married young people, whose needs are not being met.