The Importance of Youth HIV Prevention

Segment Description: Colleen Kelley, MD, MPH, associate professor at the Emory University School of Medicine, discusses the importance of targeted youth HIV prevention measures.

Interview Transcript (modified slightly for readability):

Young individuals, especially young men who have sex with men and transgender people have highest rates of HIV infection in the US, and globally young women and girls in Africa are also at very high risk for HIV. This absolutely has to be a focus of our prevention and treatment efforts.

Young people in general tend to have a hard time accessing care and adhering to medical regimens because they have so many other things going on in their lives, including not having a mature adult brain. This has to be a population with a huge focus on for our prevention as well as our treatment interventions.