National Resource Center for HIV/AIDS Prevention among Adolescents (APNRC)

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Investigator: Susan Coffey, MD
Sponsor: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Location(s): United States

Description

The most recent statistics from the U.S. CDC show that HIV diagnoses increased in young people 15-19 and 20-24 years of age, despite decreases in rates of HIV diagnosis in older age groups. Among men who have sex with men (MSM), those age 13-24 years had the greatest percentage increase in diagnoses of HIV infection. It has long been the case that people infected in their youth do not learn that they are infected until they are older and show some symptoms of disease. Early testing and identification is essential to help infected youth receive care and to prevent them from unwittingly passing the virus on to their sexual partners.