HIV/Aids is the number one killer of adolescents in Africa.

According to the World Health Organisation, in its latest Health for the World’s Adolescents report, East Africa is one of the regions where the disease kills more youths than road accidents, the number one global killer of 10-19-year-olds.

On the global level, HIV is the second most common cause of death among adolescents. Other leading causes of death are suicide, lower respiratory infections and interpersonal violence.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids), as at 2012, Kenya had 200,000 children aged 0 to 14 living with HIV, Uganda had 190,000, Tanzania 230,000, Rwanda 27,000 and Burundi 17,000.

In sub-Saharan Africa, adult and child deaths due to Aids were 1.2 million. The numbers were higher when those in the 14-15 years bracket were included.

Very vulnerable

“Children and adolescents in East Africa are still vulnerable to the disease, and governments must not relent in the fight because the number of adolescents living with Aids is still high,” said Prof Alloys Orago, a former National Aids Control Council director.

WHO says Africa has by far the highest adolescent mortality rates, with HIV accounting for 16.7 per cent of the deaths. About 90 per cent of the world’s HIV-related deaths in adolescents occur in Africa.

READ: Dilemma of adolescents with HIV

“Since 2000, the numbers and rates of death related to HIV among African adolescents have increased more in males than females,” says WHO.

The organisation analysed figures from its member countries to identify the leading killers of adolescents in the world.

WHO says the threat of HIV to the youth in Africa is major, as one in every six deaths among adolescents are due to the virus.

Medical experts say one of the reasons why HIV topples accidents are the poor health systems on the continent, which makes access to treatment and care difficult.

Prof Orago said about 60 per cent of new HIV infections are found in adolescents.

“With the high infection rate, and given the fact that not all adolescents access treatment, the mortality rate in Africa will definitely be higher,” he added.
Kenya has prepared a strategic plan to deal with adolescent infections and mother-to-child transmission.

ALSO READ: New WHO guidelines for earlier, safer ARV therapy

“Our prevention programmes have been successful and we have overtaken Uganda. The HIV prevalence rate in Kenya is now at 5.6 per cent and Uganda’s is 6.8 per cent,” said Prof Orago.

In 2012, the Aids prevalence rate in Tanzania was 5.1 per cent, in Rwanda 2.9 per cent and in Burundi 1.3 per cent.

Apart from being the leading global killer of adolescents, road accidents also top the unintentional injuries category, ahead of drowning.

“Road injuries are among the top five causes of death in all regions, all age groups and all sexes, except among adolescent females in the African region,” says the WHO report.

But, with a mortality rate of 11 per 100,000 population, the rate of death from road injuries among adolescent females in Africa is higher than in any other region.

Drowning is among the top five causes of death except for the African region, although the actual mortality rates from drowning on the continent are higher than in all other regions.

Infectious diseases

In the maternal causes category, mortality rates are over three times higher in Africa than in the eastern Mediterranean region, with 34 and 10 per 100,000 respectively.

Apart from maternal health problems, infectious diseases also continue to claim young lives, despite the epidemiological changes taking place globally.

“Lower respiratory infections rank among the top five causes of adolescent deaths in all regions, except for high income countries and the Western Pacific region, with more deaths occurring among younger adolescents,” says the WHO report.

The organisation adds that diarrhoeal diseases are a leading cause of mortality, particularly in 10-14-year-olds in Africa, due to poor sanitation and access to water.

“In this group, diarrhoeal diseases, lower respiratory infections and meningitis together account for 21 per cent, 18 per cent and 16 per cent of all deaths in the African, Southeast Asian and eastern Mediterranean regions respectively,” it says.

Despite the challenges, one of infectious disease success story is mortality from measles, which has decreased from four to one per 100,000 population between 2000 and 2012 in 10-14-year-olds globally.

Though not a major cause of death in Africa, when compared with South America, WHO warns that interpersonal violence among adolescents has been on the rise in the recent past.