Adolescent HIV treatment

Fast facts:

• Of the 1.55 million [1.2 million-1.9 million] adolescents aged 10-19 living with HIV globally, only 65 per cent, or 1.1 million, were receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2023.
• Of the 3.1 million [2.1 – 4.0 million] adolescents and young people aged 15-24 living with HIV globally, only 61 per cent, or 1.9 million, were receiving live-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2023.

According to WHO and UNAIDS, HIV among children and adolescents presents unique features that affect how diagnosis, treatment and care is provided across the age continuum of 0–19 years. Optimal antiretroviral drug regimens may require changes as children age and grow.  Countries need to adapt and tailor service delivery between younger adolescents (10–14 years old) and older adolescents (15–19 years old) due to significant differences in health-seeking behaviour, number acquiring HIV infection and health outcomes including AIDS-related causes. Further, models of care to retain children and adolescents in treatment and ensure that they have suppressed viral loads must leverage different opportunities and address various challenges over the life-course. It is a well-known fact that children and adolescents have lower reported treatment coverage, adherence to treatment and viral suppression rates than older age groups.

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Globally, adolescents 10-19 years account for about 4 per cent of all people living with HIV, 11 per cent of new HIV infections and 4 per cent of all AIDS-related deaths. In 2023, about 1.1 million adolescents 10-19 years, or 65 per cent of adolescents living with HIV globally, received antiretroviral treatment.

Globally, adolescents and young people aged 15-24 years account for about 8 per cent of all people living with HIV, 28 per cent of new HIV infections and 6 per cent of all AIDS-related deaths. In 2023, about 1.9 million adolescents 15-24 years, or 61 per cent of adolescents living with HIV globally, received antiretroviral treatment.

Antiretroviral treatment coverage was 65 percent among both adolescent girls and boys aged 10-19 years, respectively, and 64 and 55 percent among adolescent girls and young women and adolescent boys and young men, respectively. In order to reach the 95-95-95 targets by 2025, there is an urgent need to ramp up treatment efforts among adolescents.

Antiretroviral treatment coverage among adolescents 10-19 years varies across regions, with the lowest treatment coverage in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and East Asia and the Pacific (43 and 42 per cent, respectively) and the highest in Eastern and Southern Africa (71 per cent).

Among adolescents and young people aged 15-24 years also varies across regions, with the lowest treatment coverage in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (32 and 36 per cent, respectively) and the highest in Eastern and Southern Africa and West and Central Africa (68 and 65 per cent, respectively).

Globally, antiretroviral treatment coverage does not vary too drastically among adolescent boys and girls 10-19 years. Across all regions, the largest discrepancy between adolescent boys and girls is in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa where ART coverage is 17 and 14 per cent higher among adolescent boys compared to adolescent girls, respectively. Among adolescents and young people, globally there is variation among girls and boys, with adolescent girls and young women having higher ART coverage compared to adolescent boys and young men by 9 percentage points. Such variation is also seen across all regions except for Eastern and Southern Africa where the coverage is comparable.

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