HIV/Aids has been ranked as the leading killer disease that is claiming lives of youth at the Coast.
According to report findings by the National Aids and Control Council (NACC) released on Tuesday, Aids has claimed more than 2,531 lives of youth aged between 10 and 24 years in the last two years.
The report indicates that youth between the ages of 15 and 19 recorded the most deaths followed by those within the bracket of 20-24 years.
Further statistics from the Health Ministry indicate that at least 195,299 adolescents are on Anti-retro viral treatment while another tally of 315,000 are urgently in need of the medicinal drugs.
In addition to this, the new annual infections among kids within the ages of 0 and 14 years stands at 12,511, while those above the age of 14 but below 25 years is at a high of 13,148.
The rising infections among the youth has been attributed to early sex where close to 20 per cent of adolescents aged between 15 and 24 years are reported to have had sexual contact for the first time before their 15th birthday.
However, some of the infections are said to occur in early childhood, a fact that is attributed to live births by infected mothers.