The path towards an HIV-free generation: engaging adolescent boys and young men (ABYM) in sub-Saharan Africa from lessons learned and future directions

This paper highlights the pressing need to address the HIV epidemic among adolescent boys and young men (ABYM) in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite progress in HIV prevention, ABYM still experience low diagnosis rates, treatment adherence, and linkage to care. The paper emphasizes ABYM's vulnerabilit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AIDS care 2024-07, Vol.36 (sup1), p.85-88
Main Authors: Makusha, Tawanda, Gittings, Lesley
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent boys
Adolescent boys and young men
Adolescents
Antipoverty programs
Behavior change
Behavior modification
Circumcision
Community involvement
Community participation
Discrimination
Disease prevention
Economic conditions
Economic factors
Economics
Education
Effectiveness
Epidemics
Health care access
Health education
Health information
Health services
HIV
HIV incidence
Human immunodeficiency virus
Intervention
Masculinity
Medical diagnosis
Men
Norms
Outreach programs
Prevention
Prevention programs
Preventive medicine
Prophylaxis
Safe sexual practices
SDG 10: reduced inequalities
SDG 5: gender equality
Sexual behavior
Sexual health
Sexual practices
Sexually transmitted diseases
Social behavior
Social interactions
Social support
STD
Stigma
Sub-Saharan Africa
Teachers
Technological change
Technology
Teenagers
Treatment compliance
Young men
Youth
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Summary:This paper highlights the pressing need to address the HIV epidemic among adolescent boys and young men (ABYM) in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite progress in HIV prevention, ABYM still experience low diagnosis rates, treatment adherence, and linkage to care. The paper emphasizes ABYM's vulnerability due to societal norms, limited healthcare access, and economic pressures. It calls for gender-responsive interventions, including comprehensive sexual education, youth-friendly health services, community engagement, and targeted outreach. Comprehensive sexual education is pivotal in HIV prevention for ABYM, providing them with age-appropriate sexual health knowledge and safer sexual practices to reduce HIV incidence. Harmful masculine norms must be countered to promote respectful relationships, benefiting boys, men, and their partners. Inadequate access to youth-friendly health services hampers HIV prevention. Establishing spaces with confidential, non-judgmental care offering testing, counselling, circumcision, and provision of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is essential, especially considering ABYM's unique clinic experiences. Engaging communities, leaders, educators, and peers combats stigma and discrimination. ABYM's input in intervention design, targeted outreach, and innovative technology enhances effectiveness of HIV prevention programmes. Economic factors should also be addressed. Comprehensive multi-sectoral interventions, including conditional cash transfers, effective for AGYW, could benefit ABYM. Addressing structural factors alongside behaviour change and social support is key.
ISSN:0954-0121
1360-0451
1360-0451
DOI:10.1080/09540121.2024.2307391