Teenagers' Health at Tremendous Risk in Africa

The 2008 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, released in April by the Medical Research Council (MRC), indicates many South African teens are engaging in behaviors that endanger their health.

MRC researchers interviewed more than 10,000 students in grades 8-11 in more than 200 public high schools across the country. They found alarming levels of alcohol use: 35 percent said they drink, while 29 percent reported binge drinking. Alcohol increases the likelihood of other risky behaviors, such as drug use and unsafe sex.

Nearly 40 percent of adolescents ages 13-19 said they had had sex, with 13 percent reporting their first sexual encounter when they were age 14 or younger. Among students who were sexually active, 41 percent had more than one past sex partner, 16 percent had sex after drinking alcohol, and 14 had sex after taking drugs.

Fewer than a third of the sexually active teens reported consistent condom use, while 10 percent said they had had sex against their will. Sixty-five percent of the adolescents said they had received HIV education.

"Knowledge doesn't seem to be the problem, but access to services is," said Aadielah Maker, senior executive of social mobilization at the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication. "Young people are often discriminated [against] by health workers when they try to access contraceptives or condoms at their local clinic."

Lack of access translates into a high number of teen pregnancies. Almost 20 percent of teens said they had been pregnant or made someone pregnant. This is a "pretty high percentage," said Dr. Shegs James, senior clinical trial manager of MRC's Health Promotion Research and Development Unit. "Ideally, you would want the figure to be below 5 percent."

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


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