AIDS EPIDEMIC AND UNMET NEED FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE DISASTROUS TO LARGEST-EVER GENERATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE
Press Release
POP/692
AIDS EPIDEMIC AND UNMET NEED FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE DISASTROUS TO LARGEST-EVER GENERATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE
19981201 NEW YORK, 1 December (UNFPA) -- In a statement on the occasion of World AIDS Day, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Nafis Sadik, today called for urgent attention to the unmet need for reproductive health care among the largest-ever generation of young people. Those in the fifteen to twenty-four year-old age brackets make up one half of the 5.8 million people infected in 1998 with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the epidemic is wiping out decades of development gains, approximately 5,500 persons succumb to AIDS every day."The theme of this year's World AIDS Day is 'Force for Change: World AIDS Campaign with Young People'," Dr. Sadik said. "Half of all new HIV infections are of young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. This in itself underlines the urgency of this year's theme."
Dr. Sadik pointed out that, while young people's efforts are crucial to stopping the spread of HIV, they shoulder the bulk of the effect of the increasingly unmet need for reproductive health-care services and education in life skills: "Reproductive health programmes have a crucial role to play in HIV/AIDS prevention", she said.
"The experience of the United Nations Population Fund is that while the HIV/AIDS problem inflicts a heavy toll on young people, they are at the same time very much part of the solution to the epidemic", she added. "Educating young people before they put themselves at risk is the only way to promote safer sexual practices, including voluntary abstinence, before it is too late."
Dr. Sadik emphasized that young women are especially vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and at high risk. "They are often unable to negotiate safe sex with their partners, and in many cases are subjected to abuse, including rape", Dr. Sadik said, adding, "This violence against women is exacerbated by a new form: the infection of women with HIV by spouses or partners who acquire the virus through their exploitation of sex workers."
The impact of HIV/AIDS is compounded by the social stigma often associated with the disease. In many developing countries, including those worst-hit by the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, reproductive health care
services of any kind are scarce. However, even if people do have access to voluntary HIV testing and counselling services, many do not want to know or acknowledge their situation because of the blame and shame associated with an HIV infection.
"All people in positions of influence must take up the fight against HIV/AIDS, and deal with it openly, in an informed manner", Dr. Sadik said. "This is a matter of life and death for millions of people; the future of individuals, families, communities and nations is at stake. In countries where the leaders have given this issue high priority, there have already been some encouraging results. We cannot stand in silence; we must act now."
In 1997, the UNFPA supported HIV/AIDS prevention activities in 132 countries, compared to 124 in 1996 and 41 in 1991. The Fund's spending on these activities increased to an estimated $22 million in 1997.
The UNFPA representatives in 119 countries reported active participation with United Nations partners in the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Theme Group mechanism in support of national AIDS programmes. The key areas of UNFPA support are: training; counselling; condom procurement and distribution; information, education and communication (IEC), and other awareness-raising activities. The UNFPA-supported HIV/AIDS prevention activities are most often an integrated part of reproductive health programmes.
The UNFPA-supported programmes in most countries in 1997 targeted young people. No fewer than 96 countries received support for HIV/AIDS prevention activities for this group. Activities for young people included integration of HIV/AIDS prevention modules into in-school and out-of-school education programmes.
Furthermore, the ongoing review of the implementation of the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) -- the ICPD+5 process -- will examine the progress being made in incorporating HIV/AIDS prevention and the prevention and management of sexually transmitted diseases into reproductive health programmes, as well as the progress made by female controlled barrier methods in preventing HIV infection.
For further information, contact Jesper Juul Jensen at (212) 297-5040, Corrie Shanahan at (212) 297-5023 and Abubakar Dungus at (212) 297-5031.
* *** *