AIDS AND THE YOUTH
Young People: The Greatest Hope for Turning the Tide
Young people remain at the centre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in terms of rates of infection, vulnerability, impact, and potential for change. They have grown up in a world changed by AIDS but many still lack comprehensive and correct knowledge about how to prevent HIV infection. This situation persists even though the world has agreed that young people have the human right to education, information and services that could protect them from harm.
Young people are disproportionately affected in the HIV pandemic. They face the economic and social impact of HIV/AIDS on families, communities, and nations, and they must be at the centre of prevention actions. Where young people are well informed of HIV risks and prevention strategies, they are changing their behaviour in ways that reduces their vulnerability. For example, in several countries, targeted education has led to delayed sexual debut and increased use of condoms resulting in a decrease in HIV prevalence in young people. Yet efforts to increase HIV knowledge among young people remain inadequate.
Diverse lives, varied interventions
Young people are diverse. Interventions must be tailored to meet their individual characteristics and circumstances, such as age, sex, religion, socioeconomic and marital status and domestic arrangements, among other factors. Interventions should specifically address the needs of vulnerable and high-risk groups of young people, including injecting drug users (IDUs), whose high-risk behaviour has been identified as a driving force behind HIV transmission in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
UNFPA strives to build on and expand rights-based policies and programmes that promote healthy adolescent development and provide them with age-appropriate knowledge and tools to make informed choices. UNFPA-supported programmes emphasize behaviour change, including abstinence or delay in sexual debut, reduction in the number of sexual partners,
Young people remain at the centre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in terms of rates of infection, vulnerability, impact, and potential for change. They have grown up in a world changed by AIDS but many still lack comprehensive and correct knowledge about how to prevent HIV infection. This situation persists even though the world has agreed that young people have the human right to education, information and services that could protect them from harm.
Young people are disproportionately affected in the HIV pandemic. They face the economic and social impact of HIV/AIDS on families, communities, and nations, and they must be at the centre of prevention actions. Where young people are well informed of HIV risks and prevention strategies, they are changing their behaviour in ways that reduces their vulnerability. For example, in several countries, targeted education has led to delayed sexual debut and increased use of condoms resulting in a decrease in HIV prevalence in young people. Yet efforts to increase HIV knowledge among young people remain inadequate.
Diverse lives, varied interventions
Young people are diverse. Interventions must be tailored to meet their individual characteristics and circumstances, such as age, sex, religion, socioeconomic and marital status and domestic arrangements, among other factors. Interventions should specifically address the needs of vulnerable and high-risk groups of young people, including injecting drug users (IDUs), whose high-risk behaviour has been identified as a driving force behind HIV transmission in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
UNFPA strives to build on and expand rights-based policies and programmes that promote healthy adolescent development and provide them with age-appropriate knowledge and tools to make informed choices. UNFPA-supported programmes emphasize behaviour change, including abstinence or delay in sexual debut, reduction in the number of sexual partners,