New HIV Statistics Startle

Local News, By Joal, 18th September, 2008

HIV is on the increase Australia wide, and community groups are calling for more funding to fight it.

The AIDS Council of New South Wales (ACON) has responded to a report released yesterday by the National Centre in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, calling on all federal and state governments to increase funding for HIV education campaigns and testing.

CEO Stevie Clayton says ACON joins Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations “in calling on all governments, especially the Federal Government, to increase base funding levels in order to reverse the direction of Australia’s HIV infection rate.”

Released today, the report by the HIV research group based at St Vincent’s Hospital is an annual surveillance report on the rate of sexual transmitted infections.

The figures show that HIV infections are currently at their highest level since 2003, and that there has been a 5% increase in reported HIV infections nationally.

But while Clayton urges governments to improve funding, she commends NSW health and the NSW State Government on their commitment to HIV prevention which she says has seen New South Wale’s HIV infection rates remain ‘relatively stable’. The report indicates that HIV rates remain stable in Victoria and New South Wales, while infections are still on the rise in Queensland.

According to the report roughly 85 people in every 100,000 had HIV in Australia last year, compared with 127 per 100,000 in the U.K. and 327 in the US.
And the number of other reported STIs is on the increase as well, and Clayton says that many of these “are a lot easier to pass on than HIV, even when gay men are having sex that is safe in terms of HIV transmission.”

Calling for more funding, Clayton says ACON will focus education and prevention campaigns on “...factors that influence decision making like drug and alcohol use, social settings, group sex, perceptions of risk, and risk reduction”. Clayton also says that while people having casual sex will be targeted in campaigns “...25-30% of men who get infected are in relationships, so we will be putting a real emphasis on this area” says Clayton.

Your Thoughts

Bren

said ages ago

Some do, some don't. What's your point (apart from that you don't really care)?

zebra-stripes

said ages ago

that was my point

shaynesydney

said ages ago

How will Project Men (http://www.demographix.com/surveys/N5FZ-LWS6/CWR7HPR7/) reach Trev from Lakemba who pops up to the bushes at the back of the corner park for a quick shag while his wife Kylene drops off the kids at Tae bo and ballet classes? How will it reach Norm from Mt. Druitt, isolated by his entrenched culture of the wife and three kids, president of the under 12's footy club and treasurer of the local RSL? Or Thanh Nguyen, isloated by his culture? Or Asif Saddam or Ali Singh or any of the many and various msm's who like a bit of rumpy pumpy in the train station bog or other public sex location? A link from the SSO to the survey is groovy, but apart from ensuring the funding for those academics involved in the study, how does it differ from the SMASH or any similar surveys that have been running for years? Zebra, smokers are not the object of 'stigmatisation' in current anti-smoking campaigns, though I certainly agree that smokers have become pariahs. The campaigns don't say, 'smokers are dirty fuckers.' They warn of the serious health risks. Similarly anti-drug campaigns don't say 'meth users are scum,' they warn of it's prediliction for addiction etc. And gawd knows what a battle it was to get over our orgs insistence that such hard hitting campaigns that we now see everywhere would stigmatise users. So it is with HIV. I think we'll probably see that bloody condom in the shape of a meat pie or a Christmas tree or whatever else until the cows come home. But nowhere will see, 'if you practice unsafe sex, this is what might happen to you down the track; this is what you stand to lose...."

zebra-stripes

said ages ago

Yeah, I'm not sure. The ad with the toothless lady looking like a hobo is kinda stigmatising. I'm ok with it, like the spider. It just makes you think.

shaynesydney

said ages ago

oh, post script Bren: "You forgot to presume that my ACON pompoms need restitching for the next chaffeur-driven rooftop canape soiree" I'll give you a Glad bag to take with you, I know a lot of HIV+ssies who'd appreciate any scraps they don't manage to get through.

shaynesydney

said ages ago

LOL"The ad with the toothless lady," is a reference to the phenomenon of 'meth mouth.' When crystal meth is burned it give off sulphurous acid gases which rapidly erode the teeth and gums. Doesn't everybody know this stuff by now?

zebra-stripes

said ages ago

Not the ad I was thinking about. The one I was thinking about was about smoking.

shaynesydney

said ages ago

Mouth cancer, zebra.

Bren

said ages ago

All good questions. I don't know what the answers are. Nor if the methodology of the survey includes offline respondants. That's the hard part: how to communicate with people who'd rather not think about it or identify with it. But some (imperfect) data is better than no data at all, isn't it? IS there ever going to be a catch-all solution?

zebra-stripes

said ages ago

Yeah maybe that's it. Same effect?

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