Maestracci said that the report found that "while HIV prevalence has declined slightly among young people, young women and adolescent girls face a disproportionately high risk of infection due to biological vulnerability, social inequity, and exclusion."
The report was a collaborative effort, published by the UN Children`s Fund (UNICEF), the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) , the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank.
It examines closely the factors that increase risk of HIV infection in adolescents as well as the prevalence of the disease in this demographic.
The report indicated, according to Maestracci, that every day, an estimated 2,500 young people are infected with HIV.
"The report finds that people between the ages of 15 and 24 accounted for more than forty percent of new infections among adults over the age of 15 in 2009," she said.
Fighting HIV/AIDS has been an important public health priority for UN agencies and has been integrated into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight global development targets that the international community aims to achieve by 2015.
(U.C003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
