Amon Joseph J
a Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics , Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences , 4301 Jones Bridge Road , Bethesda , MD , 20814 , United States of America.
Afr J AIDS Res. 2002;1(2):143-9. doi: 10.2989/16085906.2002.9626553.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by the HIV/AIDS pandemic than any other region of the world, and children under age eighteen represent one-third of all new HIV infections occurring there annually. While HIV prevention efforts targeting youth are well established, few prevention programmes provide comprehensive care and support services. One reason for this is that prevention messages are often targeted only at older adolescents, and care and support activities typically emphasise the needs of younger children. By expanding prevention activities to younger children, and expanding care and support activities to older adolescents, more holisitic, and truly integrated programmes can be developed which address the common factors which make children of any age particularly vulnerable to HIV infection, namely: inadequate access to health care and unstable familial and social environments. This paper reviews evidence of the potential impact of care and support activities on HIV prevention among youth, and presents a conceptual framework for the development of comprehensive, effective, integrated HIV/AIDS prevention and care programmes tailored to the specific needs of youth.
撒哈拉以南非洲受艾滋病毒/艾滋病大流行的影响比世界其他任何地区都更为严重，18岁以下儿童占该地区每年新增艾滋病毒感染病例的三分之一。虽然针对青少年的艾滋病毒预防工作已经成熟，但很少有预防方案提供全面的护理和支持服务。造成这种情况的一个原因是，预防信息通常仅针对年龄较大的青少年，而护理和支持活动通常强调年幼儿童的需求。通过将预防活动扩大到年幼儿童，并将护理和支持活动扩大到年龄较大的青少年，可以制定出更全面、真正综合的方案，以解决使任何年龄的儿童特别容易感染艾滋病毒的共同因素，即：获得医疗保健的机会不足以及家庭和社会环境不稳定。本文回顾了护理和支持活动对青少年艾滋病毒预防潜在影响的证据，并提出了一个概念框架，以制定适合青少年具体需求的全面、有效、综合的艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防和护理方案。
