Wednesday, April 10, marks National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (#NYHAAD) 2024. “Addressing the impact of HIV on young people requires they have access to affirming, culturally competent and medically accurate resources and tools,” according to Advocates for Youth, the national nonprofit that leads NYHAAD and works to empower young people to protect themselves against HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unintended pregnancy.

What is National Youth HIV & AIDs Awareness Day? Only a day highlighting the amazing work young folks are doing in the HIV advocacy space. Learn more about NYHAAD and get involved @ the link in our bio

Posted by Advocates for Youth on Monday, April 8, 2024

NYHAAD aims to educate about HIV, raise awareness and fight stigma. The day is part of the NYHAAD 2024 Week of Action, which also includes a congressional briefing hosted by Representative Barbara Lee (D–Calif.)_and a program promoting HIV prevention pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among adolescents.

Advocates for Youth created a tool kit including downloadable graphics that can be shared on social media. NYHAAD facts include:

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly half of young people living with HIV are unaware of their status.

  • In many cases, young people are unable to access PrEP without parental or guardian consent.

  • More than half of the nearly 20 million new STIs reported in 2020 were among young people ages 15 to 24.

  • In 2021, only 6% of high school students were ever tested for HIV.

Search #NYHAAD on social media to find events and graphics, like those embedded in this article.

According to federal statistics compiled by AIDSVu.org, youth ages 13 to 24 accounted for 19% of new HIV transmissions in 2021, and 53% of those cases were among Black youth. What’s more, young people living with HIV are less likely to be in care and taking meds—only 81% were linked to care in 2021.

On #NYHAAD, Advocates for Youth also promotes a Bill of Rights declaring that youth have the following key rights:

  1. The Right to live free from oppression;
  2. The right to inclusive and honest education;
  3. The right to prevention;
  4. The right to quality and accessible treatment and care;
  5. The right to live without criminalization, discrimination and stigma.

For related news, see the HIV.gov blog post “Resources for National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day 2024,” and check out the POZ feature “2024 HIV and AIDS Awareness Days” to download a poster and learn about upcoming awareness days.