In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women are 2.4 times more likely than men to contract HIV, according to a UNAIDS report released on Thursday. 

Girls between 15 and 19 in sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 83 percent of new HIV cases in Eastern and Southern Africa and 76 percent in Western and Central Africa in 2018, detailed the "We've got the power: Women, adolescent girls and the HIV response" report.  

The report marks 25 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, considered one of the most progressive blueprints for enhancing women's rights and gender equality. It acknowledged that great strides have been made, but much remains to be done. 

"The HIV epidemic holds a mirror up to these inequalities and injustices, and how the gaps in rights and services for women and girls are exacerbating the epidemic," said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS. 

HIV infections fall, but sharp disparity between regions

Following the adoption of Beijing declaration in 1995, HIV infections in women and girls fell from 1.2 million to 740,000 in 2018, marking a 39 percent decrease. However, gains made have been uneven across the regions and also fall short of global targets.

The 2016 Political Declaration on Ending AIDS aimed to reduce the number of adolescents and young women, aged between 15 and 24, to 100,000 by 2020, but in 2018, the number stood at 310,000 – three times that of the target.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the largest HIV epidemics in the world. In 2018, women accounted for 59 percent of new infections, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 1995. 

Furthermore, while most developed countries saw a progressive fall in HIV infections among women aged 15 and above, there was an uptick in Eastern Europe and central Asia and Middle East and North Africa regions. And in Latin America, new infections plateaued in the 2000s. 

In particular, Eastern Europe and central Asia showed a four-fold increase from 10,000 new cases in 1995 to 40,000 in 2018, making it the region with the fastest rate of infections, even as infection rates fall globally. 

Discrimination exacerbates HIV infections in women

Gender discrimination continues to be a key risk factor for young women contracting HIV because it limits their access to education, legal rights and healthcare services. 

"Gender inequality restricts women's control in deciding how, when and with whom they have sex," explained the report. 

Meanwhile, violence against women remains a pressing issue as intimate violence remains common and has been found to increase the risk of women acquiring HIV by 50 percent in areas with high HIV prevalence. 

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action sets out clear steps to achieve gender equality and equity through closing the gaps in education, giving women rights over their own bodies, and equal employment, among other things. 

Today 6,000 adolescent girls and women continue to be infected by HIV each week, mostly in Africa, due to these gaps. 

"This is unacceptable, avoidable and it must end," said Byanyima. 

(Cover image: Children dance and entertain a crowd attending a World AIDS Day commemoration on the eve of World AIDS Day at Nkosi's Haven in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 30, 2019 . Denis Farrell/AP)