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African govts. asked for more attention to adolescents to curb HIV

Saturday, 14 March 2015 5:05 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 14 March 2015 5:05 PM ]

African girl

Coletta Wanjohi
Press TV, Addis Ababa

Statistics from the joint United Nations program on HIV AIDS , known as UNAIDS show that more than 35 million people are living with HIV virus in the world while 19 million of them are unaware of their HIV status. Adolescents and young women account for one in four new HIV infections in sub Saharan Africa.

Organizations involved in the fight against HIV say that the policies adopted by governments against HIV AIDs do not focus on adolescents hence making them more vulnerable. Governments have only focused their attention on infants and adults.

Even for those adolescents that know their HIV status, sticking to medication is still a challenge. This is because parents apparently stop monitoring them at the age of 12, trusting that they are old enough .

Experts say there is a common tendency among HIV positive adolescents to take treatment holidays but they skip drugs when they think they are feeling better. This often leads to a relapse as they say the treatment under such circumstances may be 4 times more expensive than the normal treatment.

The awareness that the adolescents get is just a basic understanding about the HIV virus and the way it spreads. Improvement of this knowledge is lacking to make them understand the need for them to protect themselves and get tested.

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