youth test

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) has recently released the latest figures on the HIV/AIDS situation in Hong Kong. A total of 146 additional cases of HIV infection were reported from January to March (1st quarter of 2019). This figure represents a decrease of 26 cases compared to the previous quarter. In total, the cumulative number of HIV infections has reached 9,861 cases. To curb the spread of HIV/ AIDS among young people, The Hong Kong AIDS Foundation (the Foundation) will launch a free service of “HIV self-test at home” to adolescents this year as we believe that home-testing can encourage more young people to conduct HIV testing.

The Foundation is concerned about the HIV infection situation among men who have sex with mem (MSM) in Hong Kong. 44.5% of the additional cases of HIV infection in the 1st quarter were reported in this category, compared with 47.7% of the additional cases were reported in the previous quarter. According to past figures, the MSM group has always been exposed to a high risk of HIV infection.

According to the latest figures, the 32 additional cases of HIV infection were found among young communities aged 20 to 29 years old, and 40 additional cases were recorded in those aged among 30 to 39 years old. The Foundation urges the Hong Kong government to put more resources on safe sex education for key population groups who are more vulnerable to HIV infection (e.g. younger generation).

The Foundation will now expand the scope of its youth education programme and formally launch the free “HIV self-test at home” programme for adolescents aged 16 or above in 2019. By offering an HIV self-test at home, we can empower young people to find out their own HIV status and encourage them to test themselves immediately. The test result will be available within 15 minutes. Workshops on the HIV self-test will be also conducted at universities and campuses. Besides this new home-test kit service, the Foundation has been working closely with universities to equip young people with sufficient sexual health knowledge and help them establish a safe attitude towards sex.

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