Since the first cases of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) were reported in 1981,

infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has grown to pandemic proportions with

more than 70 million people being infected and about 35 million deaths [a]. Globally, at the end

of 2017, 36.9 million [31.1million – 43.9 million] people were living with HIV of which 35.1

(29.6 million – 41.7 million) million were adults and 1.8 million (1.3 million – 2.4 million) were

children less than 15 years of age [c]. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), the

WHO Africa region has the highest number of people living with HIV in 2017. Africa had

25.7%, South-East Asia 3.5%, Americas 3.4%, Europe 2.3% and Western Pacific 1.5% [d].

Despite the fact that sub-Saharan Africa contains only about 11% of the world, the region is the

world’s epicenter of HIV/AIDS[g].

Malawi’s HIV prevalence is one of the highest in the world, with 9.2% of the adult population

(aged 15 – 49) living with HIV 17,000 people had died from AIDS-related illnesses [e]. In 2017,

1 million Malawians were living with HIV among whom 66% were accessing antiretroviral

therapy [f].

Roughly a third of all new HIV infections (12,500 out of 36,000) in Malawi in 2016 occurred

among young people (aged 15 – 24). Of those young people living with HIV, less than half are

aware of their status. Early sexual activity is high in Malawi with around 15% of young women

and 18% of young men (aged 15-24) reporting having sex before the age of 15. Furthermore,

girls aged 15 – 19 are 10 times more likely to be married than their male counterparts, with

45.9% of women having their first marriage before they turn 18, nearly one in two. To attempt to
deal with this issues, in 2017 Malawi increased the minimum age of marriage from 15 to 18,

criminalising child marriage[f].

As a global health expert, I have identified four main key of social determinants regarding

HIV/AIDS that actually predispose the adolescents and youths to the epidemic in the district.

REFERENCES
a. http://www.who.int/gho/hiv/en/ Accessed 30 October 2018 at 4:39pm

b. https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/global-statistics

Accessed 1 November 2018 at 10:23pm

c. www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet

Global HIV and AIDS statistics – 2018 Fact sheet Accessed 1 November 2018 at 10:40

pm

d. apps.who.int/gho/data/view.main.22500WHOREG?lang=en

Global health observatory data repository accessed 1 November 2018 at 11:00pm

e. https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/sub-saharan-africa/malawi

HIV and AIDS in Malawi accessed 1 November 2018 at 11:21pm

f. www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/malawi

accessed 1 November 2018 11:49pm

g. https://www.prb.org/thestatusofthehivaidsepidemicinsubsaharanafrica/

The status of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa accessed 2 November 2018

at 12:14am

h.