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A report presented this week at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam presents figures that are slowing down the world's progress in recent decades in the fight against the AIDS epidemic.
Adolescents aged 10 to 19 account for almost two-thirds of the three million children and young people aged 0 to 19 living with HIV. About 1.2 million adolescents aged 15 to 19 years were living with HIV in 2017 – three in five were girls.
UNICEF spokesperson in Portugal, Francisca Oliveira, explained to the Renaissance the reasons for the gradual increase in infection among women, more than double of the number of infected men. "There are many reasons for this epidemic to increase in this group, which is the most vulnerable, and early sex is a big problem, not a consensual sex, especially with older men. inability of this group to have an active voice in these gender issues, and there is also a great lack of information and advice in these areas. "
Despite many initiatives and interventions by various organizations to end this tragedy, HIV / AIDS remains a scourge that is far from over, she said. "Contrary to what is common to think, it is a subject that is still far from the end.We have good projections of the work we are doing here, but the figures are still very high," admits Francisca Oliveira.
"It is necessary to make girls and women economically safe so that they do not have to resort to sex while they work. We need to make sure that they have the right information on HIV transmission and how they can protect themselves, "said Angelique Kidjo, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, in an essay that incorporates the report.
Over the years, however, the work of fighting the virus has paid off and the number of new infections among children aged zero to four has decreased by a third between 2010 and 2017. Today Four out of five pregnant women living with HIV have access to treatments that help them stay healthy and reduce the risk of transmission to their babies.
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