HIV/AIDS and Youth

Nearly 160,000 young adults in the United States have developed AIDS in their 20s

• As of December 2007:

Cumulative AIDS youth cases:

Under 13: 9,209

Ages 13-14: 1,169

Ages 15-19: 6,089

Ages 20-24: 38,175

Ages 25-29: 120,464

• Half (more than 20,000) of all new HIV infections annually are thought to occur in people under 25 and the majority of young people are infected sexually.

• Young African-American gay and bisexual men are being infected at higher numbers and younger ages.

• Factors that place youth at high risk:

- Same-sex relationships if they do not identify themselves as gay or bisexual

- Drug and alcohol use

- Previous sexual abuse

o By their senior year of high school, 65 percent of American students have had intercourse, and one in four surveyed say they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs the last time they had sex.

o High-risk youth groups

- Out-of-school or migrant youth

- Juvenile offenders

- Youth of color

HIV/AIDS is disproportionately present among young African-Americans

• African-Americans were disproportionately affected by HIV infection, accounting for 55 percent of all HIV infections reported among persons aged 13–24 in 2004.

• In a CDC study, African-American women aged 16-21 were seven times as likely as white women and eight times as likely as Hispanic women to be HIV-positive.

• One study found that 30 percent of young gay and bisexual African-American men age 23-29 are HIV infected.

Sources:

CDC, “Basic Statistics”, http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats.htm

CDC, “Young People at Risk: HIV/AIDS Among America’s Youth”, http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/youth.htm

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Surveillance Report, Vol. 19