Young people have always been at the center of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Recent trends indicate that this epidemic is expected to worsen in the years to come with the next two decades continuing the steady increase of people living with HIV/AIDS. Countries that have been hard-hit by HIV/AIDS have only begun to feel the impact of the epidemic on young people.28

·As of the end of 2003, an estimated 40 million people worldwide - 37 million adults and 2.5 million children younger than 15 years - were living with HIV/AIDS. Approximately two-thirds of these people (26.6 million) live in Sub-Saharan Africa; another 18 percent (7.4 million) live in Asia and the Pacific
· An estimated 5 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide during 2003; that is, about 14,000 infections each day. More than 95 percent of these new infections occurred in developing countries, and nearly 50 percent were among females.
· In 2003, approximately 2,000 children under the age of 15 years, and 6,000 young people aged 15 to 24 years became infected with HIV every day.

Young People at Risk:

Several factors contribute to the high risk of becoming infected with HIV during the adolescent and development years of one's body. A person is never "too young" to contract this deadly virus. Young people must learn of this epidemic and learn how to prevent oneself from becoming another statistic.
· Many young people who are infected with HIV don't know they carry a deadly virus and could infect another person. When a young person is infected with a sexually transmitted disease, this increases the possibility of becoming infected with HIV and increases the possibility of infecting someone else.34
· Many teenagers who are sexually active in countries of high HIV infection rates don't see themselves at risk for acquiring HIV.35 Young people who inject drugs into their bodies are at a high risk for HIV infection due to the blood involved in the process of injection.36
· In 2003 alone, HIV/AIDS-associated illnesses caused the deaths of approximately 3 million people worldwide, including an estimated 500,000 children younger than 15 years.

Young Women at Risk:

HIV is a virus that does not discriminate between age, race, economical status or gender. However, some factors do increase the chance of becoming infected. Research has shown that by nature young women are in a category of high risk.
· Women have a greater risk than men of becoming infected with HIV during vaginal sexual intercourse because of the anatomical differences between male and females.37 In sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, more young women than young men make up the population living with HIV/AIDS.38
· In some highly impacted countries, for every 15 to 19-year-old boy who is infected, there are five to six girls infected in the same age group.39

 



Children & AIDS:

Young children and babies are the most severely effected by the AIDS epidemic. They have not acted in a behavior in which they have put themselves at risk for becoming infected with a fatal virus. Why is it that these innocent bystanders are feeling the strong impact of the AIDS epidemic? Before they can even understand the horrible ramifications of a deadly epidemic, young children and babies are forced to deal with poverty, abandonment, deadly lifestyles and infection of HIV.
· Approximately 13.2 million children are without a mother or father or both because their parent(s) have died of AIDS. By 2010, the number of children who have lost a parent or both parents to AIDS could increase to 25 million.40 Children whose parents have died of AIDS have greater susceptibility to illness, malnutrition, abuse and infection of HIV.
· Children who are forced into pornography, prostitution and trafficking increase the risk factor for HIV infection. The worldwide sex trade industry lures in one million new children each year.