Failing our HIV+ girls
HIV is especially perilous for the youth, who are not tested and often do not take their treatment regimes seriously.
Namibia is not geared to deal with the high HIV infection rate among adolescents, a local public health expert argues.
Responding to the findings of the Unicef 2016 seventh stocktaking report, Nanaso (Namibia Networks of AIDS Service Organisations) executive director Sandy Tjaronda said adolescents need tailor-made sexual reproductive services.
Namibia, he added, is still lagging behind and has seen a worrying upwards trend in HIV infections among youth aged between 15 and 24.
Late in 2015, UNAIDS figures for Namibia indicated that the age group between 15 and 24 was at the forefront of new infections.
Girls, women at forefront
The most recent figures indicate that the youth, aged between 15 and 24, make up 43% of all new infections in the country.
According to the American ambassador Thomas Daughton, research shows that every year, 390 000 adolescent girls and young women are being infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
Girls account for 75% of new HIV infections each year among adolescents in the region and HIV testing and treatment coverage continues to be unacceptably low among these groups.
In this region, only 40 to 50% – less than half – of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 know their HIV status, with the result that too few of them are on treatment.
“Reaching the affected adolescent girls and young women as well as the affected young men remains a challenge in Namibia and across the region. But the reality is simple: if we want to break the propagation cycle of the virus, we must address the health needs of adolescents, girls and women collectively. These interventions will include as post-violence care, optimised HIV testing services, PrEP, and effective, youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services,” Daughton said.
According to the Unicef 2016 report Aids is a leading cause of death of adolescents globally and especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report also calls for an urgent scale-up of treatment coverage to 95% of all children and adolescents living with HIV by 2018.
“This is a true reflection. They definitely have special needs and they cannot be treated in the same way as the general population. They need certain people who can speak to them about HIV. They need constant counselling and most of the time they do not have this kind of support,” Tjaronda said.
According to him the risk of defaulting on anti-retroviral treatment is high among teenagers, who suffer immensely under peer pressure. “They disguise their status and even their treatment, and as a result, they (adolescents) go around infecting and re-infecting each other.”
This is confirmed by the Unicef report which states that HIV infection rates which have increased by 28% since 2005, are projected to rise amongst adolescents and HIV-related problems will multiply if new infections among 15- to 19-year-olds are not halted.
“In Africa, the total population of 10- to 24-year-olds will rise to more than 750 000 000 by 2060 and thus, the estimated number of adolescents newly infected with HIV is expected to increase, even if the current progress in reducing the HIV incidence rate is maintained,” the report states.
Health minister Bernard Haufiku said the report was a true reflection of the situation in Namibia.
Haufiku, who recently said that the HIV infection rate in this age group was driven by rebellion and denial, has often questioned the lack of youth-friendly services and intolerance shown by older nurses to young women accessing contraceptives.
Mother-to-child transmission
The report states that a shift in the timing of HIV transmission from mother to child has created a new urgency for focusing on adherence to medicines and retaining mothers and infants in care to the end of the breastfeeding period.
According to the report, an estimated 150 000 children aged 0 to 14 years were newly infected with HIV globally, and nearly 85% of them live in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Half of the 1.8 million children aged 0 to 14 years living with HIV globally did not receive antiretroviral HIV treatment in 2015. For those children able to receive ART, it came too late, at an average age of initiation of 3.8 years in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Namibia has done very well in this regard, with a drop from 33% in 2002 to 4.1% in 2015.
Sheila Tlou, director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa, said Namibia and Botswana were the first two countries to reach 90% access to anti-retrovirals and a 90% reduction of mother-to-child-transmission in recent years.
However, without treatment a third of children born with HIV will die by age one and half by age two without timely treatment.
“In children under the age of one, HIV-related mortality peaks occur as early as two to three months of age, hence the urgent need for these infants to be diagnosed as soon as possible after birth,” Unicef says.
JEMIMA BEUKES
Responding to the findings of the Unicef 2016 seventh stocktaking report, Nanaso (Namibia Networks of AIDS Service Organisations) executive director Sandy Tjaronda said adolescents need tailor-made sexual reproductive services.
Namibia, he added, is still lagging behind and has seen a worrying upwards trend in HIV infections among youth aged between 15 and 24.
Late in 2015, UNAIDS figures for Namibia indicated that the age group between 15 and 24 was at the forefront of new infections.
Girls, women at forefront
The most recent figures indicate that the youth, aged between 15 and 24, make up 43% of all new infections in the country.
According to the American ambassador Thomas Daughton, research shows that every year, 390 000 adolescent girls and young women are being infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
Girls account for 75% of new HIV infections each year among adolescents in the region and HIV testing and treatment coverage continues to be unacceptably low among these groups.
In this region, only 40 to 50% – less than half – of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 know their HIV status, with the result that too few of them are on treatment.
“Reaching the affected adolescent girls and young women as well as the affected young men remains a challenge in Namibia and across the region. But the reality is simple: if we want to break the propagation cycle of the virus, we must address the health needs of adolescents, girls and women collectively. These interventions will include as post-violence care, optimised HIV testing services, PrEP, and effective, youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services,” Daughton said.
According to the Unicef 2016 report Aids is a leading cause of death of adolescents globally and especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report also calls for an urgent scale-up of treatment coverage to 95% of all children and adolescents living with HIV by 2018.
“This is a true reflection. They definitely have special needs and they cannot be treated in the same way as the general population. They need certain people who can speak to them about HIV. They need constant counselling and most of the time they do not have this kind of support,” Tjaronda said.
According to him the risk of defaulting on anti-retroviral treatment is high among teenagers, who suffer immensely under peer pressure. “They disguise their status and even their treatment, and as a result, they (adolescents) go around infecting and re-infecting each other.”
This is confirmed by the Unicef report which states that HIV infection rates which have increased by 28% since 2005, are projected to rise amongst adolescents and HIV-related problems will multiply if new infections among 15- to 19-year-olds are not halted.
“In Africa, the total population of 10- to 24-year-olds will rise to more than 750 000 000 by 2060 and thus, the estimated number of adolescents newly infected with HIV is expected to increase, even if the current progress in reducing the HIV incidence rate is maintained,” the report states.
Health minister Bernard Haufiku said the report was a true reflection of the situation in Namibia.
Haufiku, who recently said that the HIV infection rate in this age group was driven by rebellion and denial, has often questioned the lack of youth-friendly services and intolerance shown by older nurses to young women accessing contraceptives.
Mother-to-child transmission
The report states that a shift in the timing of HIV transmission from mother to child has created a new urgency for focusing on adherence to medicines and retaining mothers and infants in care to the end of the breastfeeding period.
According to the report, an estimated 150 000 children aged 0 to 14 years were newly infected with HIV globally, and nearly 85% of them live in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Half of the 1.8 million children aged 0 to 14 years living with HIV globally did not receive antiretroviral HIV treatment in 2015. For those children able to receive ART, it came too late, at an average age of initiation of 3.8 years in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Namibia has done very well in this regard, with a drop from 33% in 2002 to 4.1% in 2015.
Sheila Tlou, director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa, said Namibia and Botswana were the first two countries to reach 90% access to anti-retrovirals and a 90% reduction of mother-to-child-transmission in recent years.
However, without treatment a third of children born with HIV will die by age one and half by age two without timely treatment.
“In children under the age of one, HIV-related mortality peaks occur as early as two to three months of age, hence the urgent need for these infants to be diagnosed as soon as possible after birth,” Unicef says.
JEMIMA BEUKES
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