UNICEF Finds Increased HIV Cases Among Teens | News from El Salvador

A teenager from around the world contracts the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) every 3 minutes, according to a report by the United Nations Children's Organization (UNICEF); which also means that every 30 hours between the ages of 15 and 19 are affected by the pandemic, on two thirds of girls.

According to the report "Women: the center of the HIV response in children", the numbers are still alarming, especially if it is such a young sector. "Last year, 130,000 children and adolescents under 19 died of AIDS and 430,000 – almost 50 per hour – contracted the infection," the paper said.

A similar report presented in August 2017 in El Salvador shows that 59% of HIV-positive adolescents are women and adds that of the entire population infected with HIV, 2% are between 11 and 19 years old.

In most countries, women and girls do not have access to information, services, or even the ability to say no to unprotected bad, HIV spreads among the most vulnerable and marginalized and leaves women adolescents at the very center of the crisis, "said Henrietta Fore, executive director of UNICEF.

last year, the Ministry of Health (MINSAL) had already warned against the rise of cases in the country.While the percentage of total cases for young people is low (2%), it has shown a concern for their growth in this sector of the population, especially at home. Of the total 2%, 59% are women

In 2017 "we had 1111 new cases, of which 65% were men and the rest of the percentage were women." C & # 39; is a very important fact to visualize because we see that the epidemic is focused on this group of pop ulation, "said Celina de Miranda, UNAIDS director for El Salvador, one year ago.

UNICEF also said it is concerned about this escalation. He warns that if young people are the most affected, they do not give them special attention and this slows down "the progress the world has made in the last two decades in the fight against the AIDS epidemic".

"We must ensure that girls and women have sufficient economic security to avoid bad work, we must ensure that they have adequate information. about HIV transmission and how to protect oneself, "said Angelique Kidjo, Goodwill Ambbadador for UNICEF, quoted in the report

It also states that the Children's Organization and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) took steps to counter Pandemia

Initially launched the program "All Together to End AIDS among Adolescents", with the goal of To reach the 25 countries with special attention, where Next is the program "Start free, live free, be free of AIDS", which aims to reduce the number of HIV infections among women and young people from here 2020 to less than 100,000.

UNAIDS has a similar vision in the country: "For us, it is useful to try to promote with a friendly face the visualization of the subject from a personal vision and not just serious meetings, that become tedious and do not work ". Miranda in 2017.