The theme of this year's World AIDS Day – "Take the rights path: My health, my right!" – provides an opportunity to raise awareness on the inequities associated with HIV among young people, demonstrate the possibilities and potential for reaching young people and to galvanize global leaders and country programmes to champion their right to health by addressing the inequalities that hinder their access to services and limit progress in ending AIDS.
Significant gaps across the HIV cascade and other health services exist for young people. These gaps are accentuated by stigma, discrimination, punitive laws and policies, violence and entrenched societal and gender inequalities which hinder engagement of and access to care for young people.
Today, WHO launched a technical document that highlights interventions and recommendations that have passed through the Organization's evidence-based lens. Combination prevention, treatment and care programmes use a mix of evidence-based interventions to meet the current HIV prevention needs of adolescents and young adults. However, there needs to be a focus on priority interventions that are evidence-based, practical, contextual and sustainable. This WHO document is an essential tool for moving the needle on providing young people with prioritized and evidence-based interventions.
Meaningful engagement of young people is an unassailable strategy to achieving comprehensive uptake of quality services by young people. ''It is essential that peer driven and meaningful engagement of young people is facilitated, and that young people are empowered to take centre stage in accessing services in line with global standards and best practices for high-quality adolescent-friendly and responsive health services," says Maximina Jokonya, Executive Director of the Global Network of Young People living with HIV (Y+).
Acknowledging that the needs of adolescents transcend HIV, this document focuses on the HIV cascade as well as adolescent relevant recommendations from tuberculosis (TB), sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and hepatitis B and C, prioritizing evidence-based interventions, as well as implementation considerations and research gaps that are central to the effective translation of these guidelines from evidence into practice.
