South Africa’s adolescent girls are facing relentless challenges in the prevalence of HIV among them, according to research results released here on Tuesday.
The research results, contained in the 2019 South African Health Review, revealed that HIV prevalence in adolescent girls was at 5.8% compared with 4.8% in adolescent boys.
“With regard to viral load suspension, less than 50% of HIV adolescents and young people aged 15-24 years are virally suppressed. This presents a serious challenge to improving health and well-being of adolescents living with HIV,” the review said.
The report noted that despite efforts to alleviate the burden of HIV among adolescent girls and young women, they continued to be “disproportionately” affected by the virus that causes AIDS.
According to the review, in spite of an enabling policy environment in South Africa, there have been “numerous foundational challenges across the health system’s ‘building blocks’.”
These are challenges, the results noted, with governance, medicines and technologies, human resources, service delivery, lack of adolescent-specific indicators in the data information system and system financing.
“These elements are key in achieving UHC [universal health coverage], and without strengthening them and ensuring that interventions to improve adolescent health are prioritised across the health system, achieving UHC for adolescents will remain a challenge in SA,” the report added.
The report also reveals that adolescents diagnosed with HIV have poorer adherence to anti-retroviral treatment compared to older population groups, and are the only age group with increasing HIV mortality.
NM/jn/APA