DATA BRIEFS: (Continued) HIV infections rising among adolescents in North America and Europe Worldwide, greater and greater numbers of teenagers are being infected with HIV; fully half of 1998's 5.8 million new infections occurred in the 15-to-24 age group. Teenagers in developing countries are most affected, but the risk is growing for those in industrialized countries and countries in transition, as a new pattern of infection emerges. For example, young people age 13 to 21 now account for one quarter of new infections in the United States; in Canada, too, HIV is spreading at an increasing rate among teenagers. More and more of those infected are young women. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a proliferating use of intravenous drugs has caused an explosion in infections: Some 270,000 people are now living with HIV/AIDS, with a significant number of new infections among adolescents. The epidemic is most advanced in Ukraine, which alone accounts for 18,000 cases of adolescent HIV infection. Until 1995, there were fewer than 30,000 cases of HIV/AIDS in both adults and children in the entire region. Because intravenous drug use is a major factor in the disease's spread, the Russian Federation — with as many as several million drug users — could see a dramatic rise in infections. Many are likely to be among the young: In St. Petersburg, for example, up to 20% of drug users are teenagers, some as young as 12 years. The disease is poised for even wider spread. Socio-economic upheavals have been paralleled not only by increasing drug use but also by dramatic changes in sexual behaviour among young people and a sharp increase in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. In the Russian Federation, over the last few years the number of under-18 sexually active females has increased fourfold, a pattern also occurring elsewhere in the region. In striking contrast to Western Europe, where 60% of newly sexually active teenagers use condoms, lack of awareness has resulted in extensive high-risk behaviour; in the Republic of Moldova, for example, the rate is about 8%. To date, HIV/AIDS prevention programmes have been implemented on a small scale in some countries. UNICEF has supported successful needle-exchange programmes including one in Odessa since 1997.
Adolescents (age 15-19) living with HIV/AIDS
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