The HIV/AIDS pandemic has become arguably the worst public health crisis in human history. UNAIDS (2008) reports:
- Worldwide, 33 million men, women, and children are infected with HIV.
- 2.7 million became newly infected in 2007 (roughly 7400 every day)
- 45% of all new infections occur among 15-24 year-olds.
- Less than 40% of young people have comprehensive HIV/AIDS knowledge.
- 67% of people living with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa.
International Reports on HIV/AIDS and Young People
- 2008 AIDS Epidemic Update (UNAIDS) - Reports on the latest developments in the global AIDS epidemic, provides the most recent estimates of the AIDS epidemic and explores new findings and trends in the epidemic’s evolution.
- Behavior Change and HIV Prevention: (re)Considerations for the 21st Century – Based on a review of hundreds of studies, the new PWG report focuses on behavioral change prevention, and calls for significantly expanded delivery of HIV prevention programming aimed at reducing high-risk behaviors.
- Bringing HIV Prevention to Scale: An Urgent Global Priority – This report by the Global HIV Prevention Working Group discusses the importance of greatly expanding coverage of evidence-based HIV prevention, provides examples of successful scale up of prevention programs, and offers recommendations for action.
- Preventing HIV/AIDS in Young People – A systematic review of the evidence from developing countries. WHO Technical Report Series 938.
- Young People: The Greatest Hope for Turning the Tide – Young people remain at the centre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in terms of rates of infection, vulnerability, impact, and potential for change. Report by UN Population Fund.
- HIV/AIDS and Young People: Hope for Tomorrow – “Young people are the key in the fight against AIDS. By giving them the support they need, we can empower them to protect themselves against the virus,” says Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
- The Invisble Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS – GRS Advisory Board Member Helen Epstein’s 2007 book overturns many of our received notions about why AIDS is rampant in Africa and what to do about it. A must read!
- Sizwe’s Test: A Young Man’s Journey Through Africa’s AIDS Epidemic – Award-winning South African journalist Johnny Steinberg journeys to the poor black village of Ithanga, where antiretrovirals are available, but electricity and running water are not. Though HIV testing and treatment are readily accessible, why do so many abstain?
- Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa – born in Zimbabwe, former solider and award-winning author Peter Godwin recounts his personal journey from the eve of war in Rhodesia to his experience fighting in the civil war that he detests to his adventures as a journalist in the new state of Zimbabwe, covering the bloody return to black rule.
- Letting Them Die: Why HIV/AIDS Intervention Programmes Fail - Catherine Campbell asks two questions: Why do people in AIDS-ravaged countries continue to engage in unsafe sex, which they know could kill them? And why do programs designed to prevent this practice so often fail?
- Behavioural Strategies to reduce HIV transmission: how to make them work better – Coates, Richter, and Caceres. Lancet, August 2008.
- Reassessing HIV Prevention – Potts, Halperin et al. Science, May 2008
- A Review of STD/HIV Preventive Interventions for Adolescents: Sustaining Effects Using an Ecological Approach – DiClemente, Salazar, Crosby. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Aug 2007
- Uganda’s HIV Prevention Success: The Role of Sexual Behavior Change and the National Response - Green, Halperin et al. AIDS and Behavior, July 2006
- Declines in HIV prevalence can be associated with changing sexual behaviour in Uganda, urban Kenya, Zimbabwe, and urban Haiti – Hallett et al. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2006
- The time has come for common ground on preventing sexual transmission of HIV - Halperin et al. Lancet, Nov 2004
- School-based HIV prevention programmes for African youth – Gallant & Maticka-Tyndale, Social Science & Medicine, April 2004
- Partner reduction is crucial for balanced “ABC” approach to HIV prevention – Shelton, Halperin et al. British Medical Journal, 2004
- Social Cognitive Theory and Exercise of Control over HIV Infection – Bandura, Preventing AIDS Theories and Methods of Behavioral Interventions, 1994
- School-based programs to reduce sexual risk behaviors: a review of effectiveness - Kirby et al. Public Health Reports, May 1994
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