Australia: AIDS Council testing campaigns to tackle rise in HIV

MEDIA RELEASE 18 June, 2003

The first increase in HIV infections in NSW for 8 years should be taken as a serious warning sign that the AIDS epidemic is far from over in Australia according to the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON).

"An increase of 12.8% in new infections in NSW during 2002, representing an additional 44 people newly diagnosed with HIV over the previous year, is a matter of concern that we should all be taking seriously, " said ACON President Adrian Lovney.

"Coming on the tail of a 20% increase in Queensland and three years of increases in Victoria this is a clear sign that we can not afford to become complacent in NSW. It is still not clear exactly what this data means – we are not certain if these people represent new infections or new diagnoses with people who may have been HIV positive for some time and have only recently been tested.

"Although we have one of the highest rates of HIV testing in the world, ACON is concerned that there may well be a large number of HIV positive people in NSW who have simply not been tested and believe they are HIV negative.

"ACON is rolling out new initiatives to encourage more HIV testing among gay men and the resultant opportunities for early treatments and a renewed commitment to safe sex. Later this week we will be launching a new HIV awareness and testing campaign for at risk Asian gay men and next week we are releasing a new information booklet for gay men on prevention and testing for sexually transmissible infections including HIV for statewide distribution.

"Further analysis of the NSW Health data may indicate the need for other new health promotion interventions. We will be working closely with NSW Heath on this analysis and we are continuing our negotiations around funding for new innovative campaigns that will reinforce the safe sex culture among gay men and the importance of HIV and STI testing.

"With the one of the lowest rates of HIV prevalence in the world, much of our success in containing the HIV epidemic in Australia has been due to the fact that most gay men continue to use condoms the vast majority of time. Gay men have sustained a change in behaviour unmatched in any other area of public health.

"ACON’s HIV prevention work in recent years has covered a wide variety of health promotion activities including:

* Widely distributed safe sex education/HIV testing campaigns for gay men
* HIV prevention counselling and peer support
* Relationship workshops for HIV negative and positive partners
* More than 18,000 condoms and 3,000 syringes distributed each month
* Education and testing campaigns on sexually transmitted infections

"This is a reminder that we can not afford to become complacent and that the AIDS epidemic is far from over. We must continue our vigilance in developing prevention strategies and encouraging HIV testing," Mr Lovney said

Media Contact: Cindy Jones 9206 2001/ 0408 168 791

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 18 June 2003
Source: AIDS Council of NSW (Media release)
Website: http://www.acon.org.au
Address: PO Box 350, Darlinghurst, 1300, Australia