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due to AIDS are in Africa

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HIV/AIDS statistics in Africa: Nine out of ten ad

By Lynsey Chutel • December 1, 2017
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REUTERS/ANTONY NJUGUNA
Gains and losses.

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Growing up in southern Africa in the early 2000s meant that you
couldn’t escape HIV/AIDS. Apart from the terrifying number of
people who died during those years, the messages that AIDS kills
were ubiquitous.

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It seemed like there were red ribbons everywhere, not just on World
products and events.
Aids Day on Dec. 1. There were billboards and radio adverts, and
newspaper supplements aimed at teens. On television, MTV Base’s
Africa af liate ventured into drama as a matter of moral
responsibility, producing and airing the HIV-awareness series Shuga.
On South African public television, local soap operas introduced HIV-
positive characters and even the local version of Sesame Street,
Takalani Sesame, had an HIV-positive muppet.

There was also an admirable push from governments to get as many

people on public health anti-retroviral treatment programs as
possible. So in countries like Botswana, Tanzania and South Africa,
AIDS is no longer a death sentence, despite the high number of
people living with the HI-virus.

East and southern Africa still have the highest number of people
living with HIV/AIDS in the world. The region is home to 6.2% of the
world’s population but has over half of the global HIV-positive
population, according to Avert. While 790,000 new infections in 2016
are still worryingly high, it is an improvement from the previous
decade: HIV infections have decreased by 24% among adults and 56%
among children.

Now, however, a new generation nds themselves as vulnerable to the

disease as they may have been in the early years of the pandemic.
Health authorities are sounding the alarm with a new set of statistics:
the high number of new infections among teenagers. The high rate of
infections among young people threatens to undercut the very-recent
gains made.

HIV infection among teens remains a concern

Paediatric HIV infections Adolescent HIV infections
500 thousand

400

300

200

100

0
’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 ’06 ’07 ’08 ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16
 Data: Unicef Share

Globally, HIV-prevalence among people aged 10 to 19 has increased

by 30% from 2005. In Africa, it is the leading cause of death among 10
to 24-year-olds, while the rate of mortality has decreased among
other demographic groups.

Part of that statistic is due to the children born HIV-positive who

have grown up, but their medication regimes have failed to keep up.
Many of these deaths, however, are due to new infections among a
generation who may not have experienced aggressive public
information campaigning.

Today, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 9 out of 10 adolescent AIDS-

related deaths and Africa’s youth bulge may worsen the situation if
immediate action isn’t taken. By 2020, as many as 320,000 young
women could be infection by HIV, according to Unicef’s projections.

The “youth bulge” could worsen HIV-prevalence

HIV inefections among adolescents (15-19 years)
500 thousand

400
Infections without intervention
300

200

100 Treatment Targets

0
’00 ’02 ’04 ’06 ’08 ’10 ’12 ’14 ’16 ’18 ’20 ’22 ’24 ’26 ’28’30
 Data: Unicef Share

HIV/AIDS, however, has always been an opportunistic illness. Not

only does it thrive in a weakened immune system, it attacks the most
vulnerable in society. Women remain the most affected by the
disease, accounting for more than half of the HIV-positive
population. Yong women are most vulnerable: for every ve
adolescent boys infected with HIV, there are seven girls, most of them
in sub-Saharan Africa, according to Unicef.

Correction: A previous version of this story ran with the headline “Nine
out of ten adolescent deaths in Africa are due to AIDS.” That has now
been corrected.

h tps://qz.com/africa/1144

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