Road accidents, HIV leading causes of death in teens, says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) and The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) released a new set of standards to help countries improve healthcare for teens.
WHO revealed that the top three leading causes of death in 10 to 19-year old are road accidents, AIDS, and suicide. The new standards are focused to provide low-cost, accessible, and age-appropriate healthcare without the need for parental consent or appointments if teens don’t feel comfortable doing such.
“These standards provide simple yet powerful steps that countries – both rich and poor – can immediately take to improve the health and wellbeing of their adolescents, reflecting the stronger focus on adolescents in the new Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health that was launched in New York in September,” says Dr Anthony Costello, Director of Maternal, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health at WHO.
Dr Valentina Baltag, adolescent health expert at WHO, says: “There are countries where every fifth citizen is an adolescent. Yet most students in medical and nursing schools graduate with no understanding of the specific needs of adolescents in accessing healthcare. This is unacceptable.”
The Global Standards for quality health-care services for adolescents call for an inclusive package of information, counselling, diagnostic, treatment and care services that go beyond the traditional focus on sexual and reproductive health.
More than 25 low- and middle-income countries have already adopted national standards for improving adolescent health services.
The Global Standards for quality health care services for adolescents is made available through this link: http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/global-standards-adolescent-care/en/
Dr Manuela Abreu, a psychiatrist at the University of Lisbon, Portugal.
