However, the report also said preventative measures have helped save lives, with 1.3 million new infections averted among children since 2000.
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“It is critical that young people who are HIV-positive have access to treatment, care and support”, said Craig McClure, chief of HIV/AIDS section at UNICEF.
“WHO’s new implementation guidelines showing how to treat all people living with HIV and decrease new infections are transformative”, Deborah Birx, U.S. Global AIDS coordinator, said.
In sub-Saharan Africa, seven in 10 infections in 15-19 year olds are among girls, with about 70 percent of them not using condoms during sex.
Titled Adolescents: Under the Radar in the Asia-Pacific AIDS Response and published by the Asia-Pacific Inter-Agency Task Team on Young Key Populations, which includes UNICEF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the report warned that the AIDS epidemic can not be ended as a public health threat by 2030 without tackling the issue of adolescents.
Among adolescents in that age group in the region, just more than one in 10 are tested for HIV.
During the last 15 years, the figure of adolescents who have died from AIDS has tripled. In those times, fewer HIV-positive pregnant women and mothers received antiretroviral medicines to prevent the virus from being transmitted to the newborn.
About 202,000 New Yorkers have been diagnosed with HIV, and more than 112,000 individuals living with the disease.
HIV can only be transmitted from an infected person to another through the exchange of bodily fluids.
We have made great strides in HIV treatment, and those people speaking out about their condition are helping reduce the stigma around it. But until HIV is a thing of the past, there is more to do and we need to be bold.
While there are several preventive measures in place to halt the AIDS epidemic, investments in the treatment and management of HIV have played a big role in managing its impact.
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“The world has committed to end the AIDS epidemic as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and I truly believe this is a real possibility”, she said, according to WWD.
