It is vital that people living with HIV know their HIV status. If people know they are HIV-positive, they can access treatment to keep themselves heathy. And when their treatment has reduced their viral load to an undetectable level, they can’t pass on the virus to their sexual partners. However, there are often large disparities in knowledge of HIV status, both geographically and by subpopulation.
In eastern and southern Africa, for example, young people and men living with HIV are much less likely to be aware of their status: while 90% of women living with HIV aged 25 years and above knew their status in 2018 (thanks in large part to the success of efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV), that was the case among only 80% of men of the same age, 66% of young women (aged 15–24 years) and 50% of young men (aged 15–24 years). In western and central Africa, the gaps are even larger.
