Answer:
Young people are vulnerable to HIV at two stages of their lives; early in the first decade of life when HIV can be transmitted from mother-to-child, sometimes known as vertical transmission (see children and HIV), and the second decade of life when adolescence brings new vulnerability to HIV.
Around 70% of adolescents living with HIV will have acquired it through vertical transmission and so will have been living with the virus since birth.18 Whilst programmes to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) have been hugely successful in recent years, reducing new infections among adolescents is more difficult.19
There are many factors that put young people at an elevated risk of HIV. Adolescence and early adulthood is a critical period of development when significant physical and emotional changes occur. Adolescents and young people have growing personal autonomy and responsibility for their individual health. The transition from childhood to adulthood is also a time for exploring and navigating peer relationships, gender norms, sexuality and economic responsibility.20
Considerable data gaps exist in our knowledge of HIV among adolescents and young people. This is particularly the case for younger adolescents because of the challenges in getting parental approval for their involvement in surveys and a lack of age-appropriate questions. Where data exist, limited sample sizes and lack of disaggregation limits the available evidence to inform programming. In part because of these gaps, adolescents and young people are often missing from national HIV strategic plans, particularly interventions beyond PMTCT.21
Explanation: Excluding vertical transmission, unprotected sex is the most common route of HIV infection for young people, with sharing infected needles the second.22 For some, this is a result of not having the correct knowledge about HIV and how to prevent it, highlighting the need for HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) education. For others, it is the result of being forced to have unprotected sex, or to inject drugs.23
