GENEVA – Adolescents and young adults with HIV are at high risk of treatment failure and of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners, according to research published today in the international public health journal, the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
The study, conducted in Haiti, showed that 12 months after beginning therapy, only 106 (73%) of 146 patients were still in medical care (the remainder having died or left therapy) and, of these, only 45% adhered well to life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment, 51% had virologic failure and 73% engaged in unsafe sex. Young people had twice the rate of virologic failure as older patients from the same clinic.