Aghaz-e-Nau

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Today, young people (15-24) account for 40 per cent of all new adult HIV infections. Each day, more than 2400 young people become infected with HIV—and some five million young people are living with HIV. Young people are a fulcrum. They remain at the center of the epidemic and they have the power, through their leadership, to definitively change the course of the AIDS epidemic. Experience over the past decade has demonstrated how to address HIV among young people . In countries with concentrated epidemics, programs and resources must focus on adolescents and youth who engage in risky behaviors, including injecting drugs, selling sex and men who have sex with men. In countries with generalized epidemics, where the general population is at risk, all vulnerable young people, particularly young women, need to be targeted priority in policy and program design. Evidence shows that sex education helps in reducing the risk of HIV by delaying the onset of sexual ...

I   Introduction Thirty percent of new global HIV infections now occur outside sub-Saharan Africa (which alone is home to almost 64% of all HIV infections), and of these, 30% now involve People Who Inject Drugs (PWID). This means that the sharing of injection equipment currently accounts for approximately one in every 10 new HIV infections in the world. HIV spreading among PWID has led to generalized epidemics in at least half a dozen countries. In some countries, HIV epidemics appear to have started with PWID sharing injecting equipment in prison. There are now an estimated 13 million PWID worldwide. Many spend several years of their period as PWID in prison. Injection drug use has been reported in 144 countries worldwide, among which 128 have detected HIV among PWID. Most HIV transmission among PWID involves the shared use of needles and syringes although other forms of injecting equipment, such as spoons and tourniquets, also make a contribution. As HIV prevalence in thi...