摘要：Early adolescence remains an overlooked window of opportunity for public health intervention with girls and boys in sub-Saharan Africa. Minimal health data exist on pubescent girls and boys. Considerable morbidity and mortality related to HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy emerge soon after puberty, suggesting the importance of targeting early adolescents. The fundamental goal of primary prevention would be better served if girls and boys between the ages of 10 and 14 years were targeted for effective and contextually relevant interventions. Such interventions should address healthy transitions to young adulthood to effectively advance the public health agenda with postpubescent (aged 15 to 24 years) young women and men. The global health community is overdue to build the empirical database for intervention with this age group. EARLY ADOLESCENCE, A CRITI cal window of opportunity for public health intervention in sub-Saharan Africa, remains overlooked. As the public health community writ large continues to focus on the extremes of the child and adolescent period—morbidity and mortality among those younger than five years and the unique risks of those aged 15 to 24 years for HIV infection and unplanned pregnancy—the potential for effective outreach to young girls and boys on the cusp of adulthood receives little attention. In a global arena with limited health funding, the focus of public health is rightfully on those populations with the highest risks of morbidity and mortality. However, growing awareness about the rising mortality among youths, with increased risks for both girls and boys as they move from early to late adolescence, suggests a need to reexamine our priorities. 1 , 2 The fundamental goal of primary prevention would be better served if girls and boys between the ages of 10 and 14 years—those experiencing the early changes of puberty 3 —were targeted for effective and contextually relevant intervention. Interventions should address younger adolescents and healthy transitions to young adulthood to more effectively advance the public health agenda with older, postpubertal (aged 15 to 24 years) young women and men. 4
