I have been buried in Patrick Califia essays for the last few months and there is an endless load written about ACT-UP, the 1980s, the nonoxynol-9 scandal and other issues in regards to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Personally I find prevention to be as good as a cure but we still live in hope for better drugs and treatment for those that already have seroconverted...we should seriously be pushing the state and fed governments to be more proactive in promoting prevention.

Not saying, bring back the reaper ads but AIDS activism seems to have gone dormant or almost vanished in Australia except for the month leading up to World AIDS Day. Silence=Death should still resonate to this day when we look at the epidemic on a global perspective.

The other thing that shits me is that medical research in regards to HIV/AIDS is done on African and Asian sex workers and not those from the West. Just strikes me as being a little...hmmmm...racist to a degree.

Yeah we had a really stupid woman who was doing a masters of social work come in and give a guest lecture, she touched on death rates and the AIDS epidemic, and her philosophy was as our instance of infection as opposed to say Africa was small we didn't really need to worry about AIDS too much.

Me and a few other students felt obligated to give her a piece of our minds due to the fact that she seemed to be impressing upon the minds of others some bullshit christian values on safe sex based on bullshit global statistics.

I am not a HIV/AIDS researcher but I am currently running my own non-HIV related clinical drug trial for my PhD here in Sydney. And recruitment of patients to the trial is extremely difficult here. I can understand why researchers would target their research on populations that have a higher incidence of HIV infections so that they can obtain more robust data and make their research budgets stretch further.

I think we should be generally proud of the kind of response of Australia's community and government in reaction to HIV/AIDS. We're in a better situation compared to many other countries, like anything it's not perfect and of course can always been improved.

I remember when I first started going out, round about early 90's, that AIDS info was prominently displayed in every venue on Oxford st, every Drag Queen would also mention safe sex during their shows or spot numbers, and there were huge baskets of condoms and lube on the bar. There was a large amount positive reinforcement of the safe sex message.

There were also quite a number of obituaries in the gay rags still, so there was still an undercurrent, maybe not of fear as such, more like an awareness.

These days it's not as in your face as it used to be. I guess times and the target audience changes, my experience would say that we need to be in your face again, but i'm not an expert in these kind of awareness campaigns.

I recall that Christian was going to be doing a story about ACON etc. Perhaps it would be good to have some insight into what the challenges are in educating the community, what messages work and what doesn't, reaching younger generations, etc.

I have great hope that treatments will improve, and perhaps a vaccine or cure is possible, especially as knowledge of genetics (even nanotech!) increases. It just takes a lot of time and resources.

Quote:

Originally Posted by camiseta

I am not a HIV/AIDS researcher but I am currently running my own non-HIV related clinical drug trial for my PhD here in Sydney. And recruitment of patients to the trial is extremely difficult here. I can understand why researchers would target their research on populations that have a higher incidence of HIV infections so that they can obtain more robust data and make their research budgets stretch further.

It may be difficult to find people to test things on here but the thing is that the sex workers they use in Africa and Asia were sometimes negative in the beginning.

If you look up the nonoxynol-9 scandal and its promotion as a preventative chemical back up for condoms or in lube then you will understand. Nonoxynol-9 (N-9) is used more as a spermicide but because it destroys the membrane of the sperm cell...it also is known to destroy epithelial lining of both the vaginal wall and rectum and allows there to be less of a protective barrier, which is dangerous if there is a break in the condom or if the person is barebacking.
In fact latex allergies have in a way come from the addition of nonoxynol-9 to pre-lubricated condoms.

Africa is a very different situation but at the same time it is not. There are incidents of people actually using anti-lubricants to facilitate a more dry sex when it comes to hetero couples and that has allowed a lot of increased exposure to HIV in some ways. But the fact that the Americans and the Vatican are very much on a general level opposed to making condoms readily available in Africa and Southeast Asia and teaching the people how to practice safe sex is messed up. They would rather be spreading the word of Jesus than safety.

As for rising infection rates in Australia I think there may be a correlation between the rising infection rate and the rise of "Crystal" usage. It makes perfect sense because most of the new cases here are because of there having been no negotiated safety in the first place.

In the early/mid 90's Mama was running HIV/AIDS awarness classes in school for young crew aged between 14 - 17 and back then there was absoultely heaps of materials that Mama could leave with the kids that was aimed particualry at that age group. Mama used to infat leave themwith almost a shobag full of gimmicky age appropriate stuff like the old Condom man series or the "If its not, its not on" stickers - there was even a set of playing crads s-milar to footy cards that were aimed at young crew. About 4 or 5 years ago Mama was asked to d another of these classes and there is now nothing like that around - most stuff was really clinical and just not attention grabbing enough for young crew - its ridiculous. The most frightening thing about this was that when Mama ended up dpoing this session, some of the young crew believed that
1. HIV/AIDS was no longer around
2. There was a cure
3. It was a Gay disease
4. It was Ok to have unsafe sex with someone who was HIV+ as long as that person was being treated.

Also as Zakalwe siad in the early 90's you couldnt egt away from HIV/AIDS campaigns - there was a poster on the back of every toilet cubicle door, ful lpage grim reaper or russian roulette ads in every gay rag - they even had those hideous wall displays that were called "The Face Of HIV/AIDS" and when you went to look at it it, it turned out to be nothing more than a mirror.

Anywyay Mama is proud of the way Australia first went into the fight against HIV/AIDS but thinks we've become far too complacent in regrad to educating our youguns about it.

Maybe we should be putting new ads up mainly in relation to HIV/AIDS. I know the guy with the burning jocks was good but we need something more specific to the virus.

I remember a guy coming into speak to us in year 7. He got us all into the assembly hall and he spoke to us about the 1980s. He got 20 kids to stand up...and went on about having lost 'x' amount of friends and having gone to 20 funerals within a few years...it was quite an eye-opener for year 7 kids but we took it in very well and he made it very clear that it was not just a gay thing.

There was a science/medical info poster in the school nurse's office about the effects of HIV/AIDS on the body and immune system.

I do remember our year 10 room having a Condoman poster on the wall!