Adolescent Prevention

The Learning Collaborative draws on scientific research published in the second quarter of 2019 to bring you short summaries of the following topics: PMTCT, HIV testing strategies, paediatric treatment, HIV prevention and treatment in adolescent girls and young women, adherence and retention in care, and global governance and financing for HIV. 

Adolescents and young people (AYP) (10-24 years) are being left behind in the HIV response, with high levels of new infections, and lower levels of diagnosis and treatment coverage than adults. National and local programming adapted to their specific needs is critical to ensuring their well-being and to reaching global targets to end AIDS by 2030.

AYP, including those living with HIV and from young key populations, are not just beneficiaries of programs, but are important stakeholders and agents of change. AYP leadership and partnership is an essential component of the design, delivery and evaluation of programs that affect them, leading to better decisions and policies. In accordance with principles of the greater involvement of people living with HIV, AYP have the capacity to identify approaches and solutions that best respond to their needs, making programs more effective and helping to ensure increased uptake of services and better outcomes.

This is part of a series of 12 policy briefs by the Child Survival Working Group on scaling up key interventions for children and adolescents living with HIV. Learn more.

Urgent and ambitious 2020 global targets are on the horizon, yet there has been insufficient progress in paediatric and adolescent HIV to date. Scaling up HIV services for all children and adolescents is needed, in alignment with the UNAIDS super-fast-track framework. It’s time to make sure that nobody is left behind.

This series of 12 policy briefs by the Child Survival Working Group (CSWG) looks at scaling up key interventions for children and adolescents living with HIV. They present evidence, policy and monitoring considerations, implementation guidance and tools necessary to scale up 12 key interventions which have proven successful in identifying, linking and supporting children and adolescents to access and remain in quality care and treatment.

They are designed for program managers in government and civil society programs, particularly at country-level, and provide practical information and direction.

Learn more in the Foreword and download the briefs below. 

• Addressing the service delivery needs of children of key populations

• Strategies to improve retention of mother-baby pairs in PMTCT programs

• A child-centred approach for HIV programs

• Providing differentiated service delivery to children and adolescents

• Point-of-care testing as a solution for timely early infant diagnosis

• Complementary and connected: Engaging community and faith-based organizations to deliver PMTCT and pediatric HIV services

• Sensitizing health workers to providing responsive care for adolescents and young people living with HIV

• Family-based index case testing to identify children with HIV

• Meaningful engagement of adolescents and young people in national and local HIV programming

• Scaling up optimal antiretroviral treatment for children: A long overdue intervention

• Preventing and treating tuberculosis among children living with HIV

• Providing peer support for adolescents and young people living with HIV

Building on the collaborative effort that resulted in tremendous progress in scaling up lifesaving anti-retroviral treatment and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Eastern and Southern Africa region (ESAR), UNAIDS and UNICEF launched a campaign titled All In to End Adolescent AIDS (All In) in 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya.

This report highlights how All In mobilized partners, engaged adolescents and young people and influenced policies and programmes in the 14 high-burden HIV countries in ESAR. The report documents the progress made in a few short years on adolescent HIV, and offers suggestions and recommendations on how to strengthen strategic information, apply evidence-based programming and mobilize resources for adolescents in the HIV response.