Journal of Adolescent Health, 1999

Methods: This was a cross-sectional convenience study of street-involved youth aged 14 -25 years. The youth participated in interviews to identify HIV-related knowledge and personal risk and preventive behaviors. Following interviews, they were asked to provide a saliva sample, blood spot, or both. They could refuse one or both samples without jeopardizing their involvement or receiving an honorarium. Two males were the only participants who declined to provide a sample.

Journal of the International AIDS Society, 2018

Introduction: This commentary by authors from the Adolescent HIV Treatment Coalition calls for action to improve advocacy and service delivery for young people by leveraging the interlinkages between HIV and the broader development agenda. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes target 3.3 on ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, and along with the 2016 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, this has led to a global renewal of political commitment to the HIV response. However, young people are still being left behind, and to provide an equitable and sustainable response to HIV we must ensure that we are meeting the needs of the 3.9 million young people living with HIV, and the millions more at risk. Discussion: While HIV has its own target within the 2030 Agenda, efforts to end AIDS are inextricable from other goals and targets, such as on poverty eradication, education, gender equality and peace. To tackle HIV we must work beyond target 3.3 and provide a comprehensive response that addresses the underlying structural inequalities that impact adolescents and young people, ensuring that we enable the meaningful engagement of youth and adolescents as partners and leaders of sustainable development and the HIV response. Finally, it is necessary to collect better disaggregated data and evidence on the HIV epidemic among adolescents, as well as on best practices for supporting them. Conclusions: Ending the AIDS epidemic among adolescents and young people (aged 10 to 24) by 2030 is possible. However, it requires an integrated, multi-sectoral response to HIV which pays attention to the social determinants that put adolescents at risk and fuel the epidemic. Positioning efforts to end AIDS among young people within the broader 2030 Agenda and building youth leadership will contribute to building a more healthy, equitable and sustainable society for all.

BMC Public Health, 2009

The prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among streetinvolved youth greatly exceed that of the general adolescent population; however, little is known regarding the structural factors that influence disease transmission risk among this population.

Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 2018

Purpose of Review-Adolescents, in particular those that are most disenfranchised, are increasingly at risk of acquiring HIV and, when acquiring HIV, have worse outcomes than adults. This article reviews the recent approaches to combination prevention aiming to optimize the HIV Prevention and HIV Treatment Continua. Recent Findings-There are dramatic sociodemographic differences in the HIV epidemics in low and middle income countries (young women in sub-Saharan Africa) compared to high income countries (predominantly gay, bisexual, transgendered youth, especially Black and Latino youth). Researchers and clinicians are designing developmentally-tailored interventions that anticipate youths' engagement with mobile technologies and build on the common features of evidence-based interventions that pre-date the use of antiretroviral therapies (ARV) for prevention and treatment. Summary-Evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment programs that are cost-effective need to be broadly-diffused globally. Substantial investments must be made in understanding how to implement programs which have clinically-meaningful impact and continuously monitor intervention quality over time.

Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 2001

2015

YOUTH IS A SOCIO-HISTORICAL CATEGORY WHICH HAS GAINED RELEVANCE IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES. ITS DEFINITION BEARS THE MARK OF DIVERSITY; IT IS A POLYSEMOUS CONCEPT. ACCORDING TO UNO-ECLAC (2007), YOUNGSTERS CONSTITUTE AN IMPORTANT HUMAN GROUP ACCOUNTING FOR APPROXIMATELY 37% OF THE IBERO- AMERICAN POPULATION, INCLUDING THE GROUP BETWEEN 15 AND 24 YEARS OF AGE. LIKEWISE, THEY ARE INFLUENCED BY THEIR LIVING CONTEXT AND TIME WHICH QUALIFIES AND DISTINGUISHES THEIR GROWTH AND MATURATION EVOLUTION. LIKE OTHER HUMAN GROUPS, THEY ARE DIVERSE AND UNIQUE. THEY REPRESENT A COMPLEX LIFE PERIOD DEMANDING TRANSDISCIPLINE RESEARCH AND MULTISECTORIAL EDUCATION AND PREVENTION WORK. SUBJECTIVITIES REFER TO THE INTERPRETATIONS MADE BY YOUTH ON THE REALITY SURROUNDING THEM. THERE IS A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE DIFFICULTIES PRESENT IN OUR ENVIRONMENT. THOUGH THE CURRENT IMPACT CAN BE CONSIDERED POSITIVE IN GENERAL, IT HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED THAT A LONG AND DIFFICULT ROAD HAD TO BE ...

Frontiers in public health, 2024

Journal of the International AIDS Society, 2015

Few would disagree that ‘social context’ shapes the effectiveness of HIV-prevention programmes. However much work remains to be done in developing systematic conceptualisations of HIV/AIDSrelevant aspects of social environments in vulnerable communities. This paper contributes to this challenge through a case study (44 interviews, 11 focus groups with 55 people and fieldworker diaries) of the impact of social context on a participatory peer education programme involving young people in a peri-urban community in South Africa. Three interacting dimensions of context undermine the likelihood of effective HIV-prevention. Symbolic context includes stigma, the pathologisation of youth sexuality (especially that of girls) and negative images of young people. Organisational/network context includes patchy networking amongst NGOs, health, welfare and education representatives and local community leaders and groups. This is exacerbated by different understandings of the causes of HIV/AIDS and how to manage it. These challenges are exacerbated in a material-political context of poverty, unemployment and crime, coupled with the exclusion of young people from local and national decision-making and politics. HIV-prevention initiatives seeking to promote healthsupporting social environments should work closely with social development programmes to promote young peoples’ social and political participation, increase opportunities for their economic empowerment, challenge negative social representations of youth, and fight for greater recognition of their sexuality and their right to protect their sexual health.