Biomedical technologies for the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and HIV for adolescent girls and young women

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Policies and programmes to reach adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) are critical to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that guide international health and development efforts. The high burden of sexual and reproductive health challenges include sexual and physical violence experienced by one in three girls aged 15–19 years.¹ Additional sexual and reproductive health barriers include unequal gender norms, lack of information, low agency (i.e., sense of empowerment) and discriminatory laws and policies. For AGYW living in high sexually transmitted infections (STI) incidence settings, there are compounded risks of HIV and pregnancy.² UNAIDS estimates that 65% of all new HIV infections among young people aged 10–24 years are among AGYW, reflecting their biological and social vulnerabilities.³

WHO convened an expert meeting (31 May to 1 June 2016, Vancouver) to identify approaches to catalyse STI/HIV prevention in AGYW in the context of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The goal was to identify factors within combination prevention and implementation of biomedical interventions to strengthen HIV prevention and SRHR. This expert meeting built upon two global WHO consultations on lessons learned from: (1) the first generation of scaled up ASRH programmes (4–6 April 2016, Geneva) and (2) SRH programming to catalyse HIV prevention for adolescent girls and young women (27–29 April 2016, Geneva).⁴