Achieving the global Fast Track target to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 will take a holistic and multi-faceted approach, particularly when it comes to preventing adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) from acquiring the virus.
One of the key challenges to reducing HIV infection is removing the gender norms and structural barriers that prevent men from accessing HIV services. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 2016 estimates, only 51% of men ages 20–35 know their HIV status and are on ART, compared with 67% of women.
On the whole, men are less likely to initiate treatment, more likely to have a lower CD4 when they start treatment, and more likely to interrupt treatment and be lost to follow-up than women. Consequently, men are less likely to achieve viral load suppression, increasing the likelihood of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners.
The DREAMS Innovation Challenge sought new ways to find adolescent boys and young men (ABYM) and link them to HIV services (Focus Area 3) through voluntary HIV testing services, including self-testing; pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) or antiretroviral treatment (ART) where indicated, and voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC). JSI/DREAMS I-C. 2019.
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