{mosimage}One in every five people in the world is an adolescent – defined by WHO as a person between 10 and 19 years of age. Out of 1.2 billion adolescents worldwide, about 85% live in developing countries and the remainder live in the industrialized world.
Adolescents are generally thought to be healthy. By the second decade of life, they have survived the diseases of early childhood, and the health problems associated with ageing are still many years away. Death seems so far removed as to be almost unthinkable.
Yet many adolescents do die prematurely. Every year, an estimated 1.7 million young men and women between ages of 10 and 19 lose their lives – mostly through accidents, suicide, violence, pregnancy-related complications and other illnesses that are either preventable or treatable.
WHO, along with its partners, UNICEF and UNFPA, advocate an accelerated approach to promoting the health and development of young people in the second decade of life. The Common Agenda outlines the action needed to provide adolescents worldwide with the support and the opportunities to:
- Acquire accurate information about their health needs
- Build the life skills needed to avoid risk-taking behaviour
- Obtain counselling, especially during crisis situations
- Have access to health services (including reproductive health services)
- Live in a safe and supportive envrionment
Central to this approach is the recognition that the underlying causes of young people’s health and development problems are closely related. The solutions to these problems are also similar and inter-related.
The Adolescent Health and Development Team (ADH) within the WHO Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development (CAH) is working in the following areas:
- Prevention and Care of Illness in Adolescents
- Nutrition in Adolescents
- Development in Adolescents
- Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Facts and Statistics Among Adolescents – the Sheer Numbers
- Adolescent Boys
- Adolescent-Friendly Health Services
- Measurement of Activities and their Success
