Why You Should Talk To Your Teenager About Pregnancy & HIV
BY ISABELLA MAUA FOR GRECA
With the high rising rate of HIV infections among adolescents and teenagers in Kenya, it is key for parents to have open talks with their daughters and sons about sex, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infections.
In a report released by the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council, adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 34 years contributed to 73% of all new adult HIV infections in 2023.
What You Should Know:
There is a risk of triple threat among teenagers who engage in early sex. It happens in this order:
• Gender-based Violence
• Teenage Pregnancy
• New HIV infections

Types of sexual violence include:
Ø Defilement – when a girl aged below 18 years is abused sexually by any person.
Ø Rape – penetration (no matter how slight) of the vagina or anus with any body part or object without consent of the victim.
Ø Intimate partner violence – when a current partner or a former sexual partner abuses the other physically or sexually.
Ø Incest – when a male or female sexually abuses a close relative
Ø Sodomy – when a male person is sexually abused by another male person
Despite the fact that matters to do with sex are still taboo in the Western region of Kenya, the statistics are disturbing.

Clarion Call:
This calls for the society to boldly go against the norm and step in to fill the gap of knowledge at all levels.
Parents, teachers, clergy, and governmental and non-governmental organisations should be part of this change!
Zero tolerance for teenage motherhood and new HIV infections does not start with the young girls, nor does it end with their parents.
Teaching them and protecting them remains a communal responsibility because you are either infected or affected.
In 2024, over 1/3 of all sexual gender-based violence cases reported are amongst adolescent girls aged 10 to 17 years old.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in 2024, showed that adolescents and young women aged 10 to 19 years record 40 new HIV infections every week.
WORLD BANK REPORTS: 17% of GDP is lost due to the lifetime cost of adolescent pregnancy. If girls in Kenya had completed primary school alone, their additional output over their lifetime would be equivalent to 20% of annual GDP.
