As we mark World Aids Day today, a troubling trend is emerging in Africa, the continent most severely affected by the epidemic: the most digitally connected youth generation is increasingly underestimating both their risk of contracting HIV/Aids and the gravity of the virus. With nearly one in every 30 adults living with HIV/Aids in Africa, the highest prevalence of any region globally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this disconnect between perception and reality is alarming. It is precisely this gap that makes this year’s theme, ‘Overcoming disruption, transforming the Aids Response,’ not only timely but urgently necessary.
Fuelled by digital disruption, misinformation, changing social behaviours, and modern forms of stigma, the growing gap in HIV/Aids awareness among teenagers and young adults, also known as Generation Z (born 1997-2012), demands urgent attention. The millennials, who grew up from 1981 to 1996, with many witnessing parents, siblings, or neighbours fall ill long before antiretroviral therapy became widely available. These painful experiences created a sense of vigilance that shaped safer sex by using condoms correctly every time, getting tested regularly for HIV/Aids and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STIs), and reducing the number of sexual partners.
In contrast, Gen Z has grown up in a new era of few visible signs of the disease, owing to the treatment breakthroughs, the success of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme, viral suppression, and stigma reduction. The 2024 Unaids report confirms the consequences of this shift: Sub-Saharan Africa recorded 360,000 new infections among young people aged 15-24, with young women disproportionately affected. Globally, 4,000 adolescent girls and young women were infected every week in the previous year, with the majority occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. These statistics highlight that many of today’s digitally connected youth are increasingly exposed to risky behaviours and new infections, even though prevention and treatment services are more available than ever.
This disconnect is further reflected in the fact that many Gen Zs fear pregnancy more than HIV/Aids, regardless of the long-term implications of the virus.
Their world has also normalised behaviours that increase vulnerability such as casual ‘sneaky links,’ recreational marijuana use, binge drinking, avoiding long-term commitments, dating for ‘vibes,’ and ‘spinning plates’ (having multiple sexual partners or options to choose from). If these terms sound unfamiliar, parents and guardians may be unaware of the public health risks in their own households. While researchers identify structural drivers such as poverty, gender inequalities, and limited access to reproductive health services that contribute to this vulnerability, a significant part of the risk stems from behaviour and perception.
This critical behavioural challenge demands targeted social and behavioural change interventions. The trend can be understood through the lens of the Health Belief Model (HBM), (Rosenstock, Hochbaum, Kegeles, and Leventhal, 1950s), which shows that health choices are strongly influenced by two factors: perceived susceptibility (how likely someone thinks they are to get infected) and perceived severity (how seriously they view the consequences).
Because many Gen Z youth rarely see visible illness around them, their perceived susceptibility and perceived severity of HIV/Aids decline, which reinforces the belief that ‘it can’t happen to me’ or ‘it’s no longer that serious.’ So the question remains: how can we use targeted social and behavioural change communication to reach a generation that sees little immediate risk and help them fully understand the stakes of HIV/Aids before more lives are lost?