UN: African youth most at risk from HIV/Aids
01/07/2008
A senior figure working in the UN has said that young people living in Africa are the most at risk of contracting HIV/Aids.
Elizabeth Mataka, UN special envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa, said that high levels of ignorance among many youngsters is leading to unacceptably high infection levels.
She called on youth-oriented educational programmes to be incorporated into national efforts against the disease, insisting that raising awareness is crucial to tackling the problem.
Ms Mataka is also the national executive director of the Zambia National Aids Network, and she cited recent research in that country which found that only a third of 15 to 19-year-olds understand that HIV can be transmitted sexually.
"This only shows that our youth are lacking the vital information that could actually prevent them from contracting and further spreading HIV," she bemoaned.
But Ms Mataka stressed that special measures must be taken when reaching out to young people, arguing that "in getting information and messages across … there is need for an approach which is friendly".
To this end she applauded Zambia's focus on Youth Friendly Health Service Centres (YFHSC), which aim to bring disenfranchised, orphaned and self-sufficient youths into the fold of social care.
"When we talk about universal access to prevention, care and support, we include everyone - and therefore I cannot over-emphasise that a system must be found to allow out-of school youths to enjoy these YFHSC facilities," Ms Mataka commented.
According to the World Health Organisation, 63 per cent of all HIV-positive 15 to 24-year-olds live in sub-Saharan Africa.
©