AIDS Mortality Among Adolescents Worldwide Increased By 50% - Expert Of The Ministry Of Health

AIDS mortality among adolescents worldwide increased by 50% - expert of the Ministry of Health

Adolescents are the most vulnerable group of people living with HIV. They often do not accept their diagnosis, refuse therapy, and in addition, many of them suffer from depression and other mental disorders.

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As the chief freelance specialist on diagnostics and treatment of HIV infection of the Ministry of Health Yevgeny Voronin said during an online conference of RBC, the global death rate from AIDS has decreased by 30% in all groups, except adolescents. Among them, mortality increased by 50%.

According to Voronin, in Europe, many HIV-infected children are born to mothers from disadvantaged African countries, but they grow up in complete families. In Russia, only 30% of infected children live in complete families, about 30% are in the care of close relatives and 10-15% are in orphanages. One in four teenagers with HIV infection have depressive symptoms, Voronin added.

“When a child does not have a social resource, support, when he has psychological problems and he is faced with adolescence, it is very difficult,” he said. “If we do not carry out an individual approach to such children, then we may lose even those of them who are healthy from the point of view of medicine.”

Olga Kiryanova, director of the Children Charitable Foundation, believes that HIV prevention centers should work more with NGOs that can provide psychological assistance to such people, especially children. This is very important because many people with HIV need psychological support, but specialized centers may not have enough resources.

“Many seek psychological support, there are many questions about how to tell the child about the diagnosis and what to do if he does not want to accept therapy. We also face a lack of HIV awareness among adolescents themselves. In addition to the diagnosis, many have traumatic experiences - parents died, many are raised by grandmothers. Such teenagers often think of suicide, suffer from depression,”said Kiryanova.

Oksana Pushkina, a State Duma deputy and member of the Board of Trustees of the AIDS. CENTER Foundation, spoke about the aggressive stigmatization of people with HIV infection in Russia, but if an adult can somehow resist this, then a child cannot. It is especially difficult for adolescents to experience their diagnosis during a difficult transition period.

“We can provide them with competent psychological assistance, but such people are still forced to live in a very aggressive environment,” said Pushkina and urged doctors to cooperate more with the education authorities and conduct educational work, operate with facts and experience. According to the expert, in Russian schools there is an acute shortage of competent sex education, within the framework of which children, among other things, will be explained about how HIV infection occurs.