Report on the Global HIV/AIDS epidemic

Prevention: daunting challenges ahead

Where more young people are sexually active than are married, there is a greater
likelihood of HIV infection. Figure 21 shows the difference between the proportion of
15-19-year-olds who are married and the proportion who have started having sex in
selected countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It can be seen that the countries with large discrepancies between these two categories are also the ones with
high rates of HIV in the adult population.

1/;

Figure 21.
% 801

Proportion of 15-19-year-old girls married, proportion
reporting ever having had sex, and adult HIV prevalence rate,
surveys in selected countries, 1996-1998
im married
[ ever had sex. adult HIV prevalence rate

/

*(ge'~ ee'.1,010i (A "e c ~~'
99 6 ~ 6
(AN\ S o5 G, oi

a7

Source: Demographic and Health Surveys, Macro International, USA

I

Sex before marriage: the HIV risks
Clearly, very high proportions of women and men around the world are having sex
before marriage, often from a very early age. Prevention campaigns that promote no
sex until marriage seem to be failing young people in most continents. But so long
as people are choosing only one uninfected partner who never has sex with anyone
else, that is not necessarily a problem. Many people do go on to marry the person
they first have sex with. But the available data suggest that this is by no means the
norm.

/7 2

57