50,000 new infections were reported in 2014, overall.
By Sreejith Vallikunnu
A UN report published recently has put India in the list of top 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region that face the burden of highest HIV infection among adolescents.
According to the report titled ‘Adolescents: Under the Radar in the Asia-Pacific AIDS Response’, an estimated 98% of total HIV-infected adolescents aged 10-19 live in 10 Asia-Pacific countries - Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
The report published by the Asia-Pacific Inter-Agency Task Team on Young Key Populations, which includes UNICEF and the Joint UN Programme warned that the AIDS epidemic cannot be eradicated as a public health threat by 2030 without tackling the issue of HIV-affected adolescents.
United Nations agencies reported that an estimated 50,000 new infections were reported in 2014 among those aged 15 to 19, calling on Governments to develop specifically targeted prevention strategies.
UN estimates that there are 220,000 adolescents in the Asia-Pacific region living with HIV, with large cities like Bangkok, Hanoi and Jakarta hubs of new infections.
The 2014 figure accounts for almost 15 percent of all new cases in the region. Although new infections reported have hit the lowest global average, they are rising among adolescents, coinciding with an increase in risky behaviour, such as multiple sexual partners and inconsistent condom use.
Those at highest risk include gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender people, injecting drug users, and people who buy and sell sex, the report added.
“In Asia and the Pacific – as worldwide – adolescents have been largely neglected as a distinct group in focused efforts to prevent HIV transmission and prolong the life of people living with the virus,†UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Director Daniel Toole and UNAIDS regional director Steven J. Kraus wrote in a joint foreword to the report.
The report urges Governments to provide access to adolescent-sensitive HIV testing and treatment and develop better data and adolescent-specific laws and policies, including comprehensive sex education in schools and through social media, information on where to get an HIV test, and condom use.
“It is vital for adolescents to know their HIV status, and get treatment if they need it, but in many countries they are turned away from HIV testing centres,†it stressed.
India has the third-highest number of people living with HIV in the world with 2.1 million Indians accounting for about 4 out of 10 people infected with the deadly virus in the Asia—Pacific region, according to a UN report published on 2014.
Free antiretroviral treatment (ART) has saved more than 150,000 lives in India since 2004. The current pace of scale-up of services expected to avert around 60,000 deaths annually over the next five years.