In less than a week, the annual celebration of World AIDS day will once again be celebrated. It was in line with this fact that UN was found to be calling for urgent actions which is needed in order to help and protect girls and young women from Aids in sub-Saharan Africa, where thousands of whom are still being infected with HIV every week.
HIV In Africa
According to The Guardian, it was found that a lot of adolescent girls do not know that they have been infected with the virus and do not seek help or get treatment because they cannot tell their families they have had a sexual relationship with a particular person or even persons. Records show that the death rates among adolescents are high.
Meanwhile, Science Mag has recently reported that the annual World AIDS Day report of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland shows that about 19 percent of the estimated 2.1 million new cases worldwide in 2015 has occurred in women between the ages of 15 and 24 particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé has also revealed that there are allegedly two underlying factors in Nigeria's condition that has made the prevalence of the disease to become stronger. He named it as the lack of effort to focus resources on the regions of the country that have the biggest problems, and the fact that there is no strong "culture of accountability" to ensure funds are well spent.
Ultimately, the UNAIDS executive director believes that too little has been done to help girls protect themselves and stay well. They are at high risk of HIV infection, have low rates of HIV testing, and have poor adherence to treatment. The world is failing young women and we urgently need to do more. Activists also believe that it's with the idea of putting awareness not only of what the disease is, but what it actually feels like to live with it, that makes us all humans.
