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CITY OF MEXICO (THE UNIVERSAL) .- About 30 teenagers aged 15-19 have contracted HIV every hour in 2017, according to UNICEF's new report "Women: At the Heart the HIV response for children "(Women: at the center of the HIV response in children), which provides statistics on the global AIDS epidemic and its impact on the most vulnerable. "It's both a health crisis and the ability to act."
In most countries, women and girls do not have access to information, services, or even the ability to say "no" to unprotected sex. HIV spreads among the most vulnerable and marginalized and leaves adolescents at the center of the crisis, "says Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director
The report, presented to the International AIDS Conference this week in Amsterdam, reveals that only last year, 130,000 children and adolescents under the age of 19 died of AIDS, and 430,000, nearly 50 per hour, contracted HIV. 39; infection. 19659002] UNICEF warns that teens are still the most affected by the epidemic. In fact, girls and adolescents aged 10 to 19 make up almost two-thirds of the 3 million young people aged 0 to 19 living with HIV. In 2017, about 1.2 million young people between the ages of 15 and 19 had HIV, of which 3 out of 5 were girls.
Although mortality in all other age groups, including adults, has decreased since 2010, deaths among older adolescents (15 to 19 years) have not been reduced. Among the factors that explain the spread of the epidemic in adolescents, UNICEF points to early sexual relations, including with older men, forced sex, helplessness during negotiations on the possibility of having sex, poverty and lack of access to confidential counseling and testing. "Ensuring girls and adolescents do not fall into prostitution"
Africa has long been the epicenter of the AIDS crisis, Botswana and South Africa are now registering Maternal and child transmission rates of only 5% and more than 90% 100% of HIV-positive women follow effective treatment regimens for HIV.
About 100% of pregnant women in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe know their HIV status. "Women are the most affected by this epidemic, both because of the number of infections and because of their role as primary caregivers of people with the disease, and they should stay ahead of time. guard of the fight against the epidemic.A struggle that is far from over ", concludes the executive director of UNICEF
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