In Latin America and the Caribbean, every day there are approximately 30 new cases – 11,000 a year – of infections among adolescents and young people between the ages of 10 and 19, highlights the new UNICEF publicationon children with HIV and AIDS.
To a large extent, new infections in this age group are concentrated among adolescents and young men. Between 2010 and 2021, the reduction in new HIV infections was 25 percent for adolescent females and only 3 percent among adolescent males.
However, girls, adolescent girls and women continue to bear the brunt of the HIV epidemic due, in part, to gender inequalities that often result in their lack of power to negotiate safe sex, poverty that manifests itself in communities located far from health centers, and lack of access to HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health programs.
The most recent UNICEF data also estimate that, in Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 34,000 pregnant women require treatment for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
“While the region has not seen significant increases in HIV infections, we are concerned that adolescents and young people are contracting the virus without knowing it. Less than 25 percent of adolescents and young people have access to an HIV test, while access to sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents is scarce,” said Garry Conille, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Younger populations also face major challenges in the fight against AIDS. According to UNAIDS estimates[1], by 2023, only 39 percent of children aged 0-14 years will have received antiretroviral treatment, due to the barriers of limited access to services and care. As a result, half of HIV-infected children who do not receive timely treatment die before the age of two, while 8 out of 10 die before the age of five.
In parallel, Latin America and the Caribbean is home to one of the world’s most complex migration crises. For this population on the move, high levels of HIV-related stigma, fear of deportation and limited access to prevention and treatment services increasingly drive them away from HIV programs. Gaps in service coverage between migrants and the local population are exacerbated when host country health systems fail to ensure access to health and laboratory services for the uninsured.
UNICEF is committed to promoting the actions needed to end pediatric AIDS and protect women, children and adolescents and the most vulnerable populations from HIV. To this end, it urges governments to generate and use data for evidence and action on the issue; leverage HIV-related resources to address gaps; raise awareness among the population, especially adolescents, about HIV transmission and prevention; and establish free, differentiated health services without legal access barriers to facilitate information.