New York, In a stark revelation by UNICEF’s latest Global Snapshot on Children with HIV and AIDS, nearly 98,000 adolescent girls aged 10-19 contracted HIV in 2022, equating to about 1,900 new infections every week. Released ahead of World AIDS Day, the report underscores a worrying trend despite a significant reduction in infections since 2010, from 190,000 to 98,000 among girls in this age group.

According to UN Information Centre – Islamabad, girls were more than twice as likely as boys to acquire HIV last year. Globally, there were 270,000 new HIV infections among children and adolescents aged 0-19 in 2022, increasing the total number of young people living with HIV to 2.6 million.

UNICEF Associate Director of HIV/AIDS, Anurita Bains, expressed concern over the disproportionate impact of HIV on adolescent girls. She emphasized the need for collective action to remove barriers that threaten their health and wellbeing, including ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The report attributes the higher infection rates among girls to gender inequalities, poverty leading to limited healthcare access, and inadequate HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health programs. In sub-Saharan Africa, the HIV prevalence among adolescent girls and young women aged 10-24 years remains over three times higher than their male counterparts.

Eastern and Southern Africa bear the brunt of HIV infections in the 0-19 age group, followed by regions including West and Central Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Asia.

The report also highlights significant disparities in treatment access for children and young adolescents compared to adults. About one million people aged 0-19 living with HIV are not receiving treatment, over half of whom are in Eastern and Southern Africa. Complex diagnostic processes, the lack of infant-specific testing in middle- and lower-income countries, and the absence of age-appropriate antiretroviral medication are key factors contributing to only 57 per cent of children aged 0–14 years receiving antiretroviral treatment, compared to 77 per cent of those aged 15 and above.

Despite progress, the pace towards ending AIDS remains sluggish, with 99,000 children and adolescents dying from AIDS-related causes in 2022, representing 15 per cent of all AIDS-related deaths.