Citation

Beksinska ME, Pillay L, Milford C, Smit JA. S. Afr. Med. J. 2014; 104(10): 676-678.

Affiliation

Maternal, Adolescent, and Child Health Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Durban, South Africa; Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK. mbeksinska@matchresearch.co.za.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, South African Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

25363052

Abstract

Adolescence is a time of rapid changes that influence behaviour, in particular decisions to engage in risky behaviour. Eighty-eight per cent of the 1.2 billion adolescents worldwide live in developing countries where access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services that could support them are often inadequate and fragmented. South African (SA) youth continue to be vulnerable, with an HIV prevalence of 7.3% reported for 15 - 24-year-olds in 2012. SA has a statutory commitment to address these problems, so the state of youth SRH has not been ignored. Many government and non-governmental organisation (NGO) initiatives have been implemented since SA's transition to democracy. The implementation of a school-based SRH programme provided by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) mobile services is discussed in this issue of SAMJ.

Language: en