Lowest HIV rate in a decade

Lowest HIV rate in a decade

Australia’s HIV infection rate has levelled off for the first time in a decade.
Figures to be released tomorrow at the Australasian HIV/AIDS Conference will show that the rate of HIV diagnoses has levelled off, with 995 new cases reported in 2008 compared with 1051 in 2007.
“These new figures do not yet constitute a trend, but reaching a plateau is preferable to the continuing increases we had over the last decade,” AFAO’s executive director Don Baxter said.
“It is pleasing and it does demonstrate that re-investment in the program works, and it does demonstrate that most gay men are doing safe sex nearly all the time, so they are encouraging, positive signs.”
Victoria, whose figures for 2008 remained stable at 5.3 new infections per 100,000 of the population, compared to 5.5 in 2006, played a large role in the result, Baxter said.
“Victoria and Queensland reduced investment in HIV prevention and support programs and their infection rates rose.
“The fact that Victoria did re-invest in the program in 2006, that’s now had an impact in the community, and that’s where most of the decrease has happened — among gay men in Victoria.
“Queensland is about the same, which suggests that Queensland needs to re-invest on the same scale.” Queensland began to increase its HIV funding last year, which Baxter predicted would translate into decreasing figures over the next two years.
“There’s still a fair bit of volatility in the epidemic around the country,” ACON’s CEO Stevie Clayton said.

“We’re moving to a situation where we have really different-looking epidemics in different states. For instance, in Western Australia, in other places where we have the mining boom we’re seeing increases in HIV infections among heterosexual men who are getting HIV in connection with travel.”
NSW is the only state to have maintained HIV prevention funding over the past decade, and the only state to have shown a stable rate — around 5.7 new diagnoses per 100,000 — over that time.
Baxter warned, however, that this should not yet be considered a trend.
“There was a change in the way NSW collected the data about two years ago, but my gut feeling is that if the rates next year are going in a similar direction, then I think that will be a trend. But undoubtably NSW is doing better than the other states and that is partly because of its better leadership and collaboration between the Government and the community.”
Clayton agreed government relationships were key.
“In some thinktanks that have looked at comparing NSW with the other states, a key issue that has come up is that there is some sort of minimum funding you need to provide to get the basic information out there. We don’t have a figure but there’s clearly a bare minimum that has been happening in NSW that hasn’t been happening in other states,” she said.
Increasing funding in other states will be key if we are to see a real drop in figures, according to Baxter.
“These outcomes demonstrate that for a modest increase in funding in HIV prevention we’d be able to achieve that nationally,” Baxter said.

“It’s a good argument for the Department of Health and Ageing and the Minister to take to the Cabinet in next year’s budget and say ‘let’s invest a bit more and we’ll have the figures going down’. ”
“We’ve been doing major STI campaigns in each state and territory and nationally, but I have to say, they’re not on the scale they need to be.
“As the gay community changes its nature a lot and gay men don’t go out to gay institutions as much as they used to, we need to move these campaigns out into more mainstream communication channels. I think that’s part of the rationale for increased funding because we do need to move beyond the gay community communication channels.”
Baxter is concerned, however, that proposed changes to Commonwealth, state health funding arrangements could have the opposite result. Pooling HIV prevention resources into general hospital funding could make those finances vulnerable.

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14 responses to “Lowest HIV rate in a decade”

  1. I still argue that 900 new cases a year is way too much. I think in the new world post 1995 of HAART Gay Men think

    “that HIV/AIDS is no longer a KILLER all we have to do is pop a few pills everyday”

    I think this is the wrong attitude as many people die not so mich from AIDS but complications from the ARV. It is true that HIV/AIDS has gone “underground” as we dont hear about people passing away anymore ( and no obituaries in SSO).

    And dont get me started about sex practices of online fuck buddies….thats where the $$$ should be spent on more “pop up” adds. Warning of the very present dangers of UNSAFE SEX.

    Also I think gay men in Sydney forget that the HIV infection rate in the postcode area of 2010( Surry Hills / Darlinghurst) is around 20%. That is very high indeed!!!

    Drew :)

  2. Some of us get laid…and we should always do that safely!

    others such as Oliver obviously don’t, and should busy themselves rearranging their lavender bags in their undies draw rather than making a fool of themselves in forums such as this.

  3. Well, all I can say is, its up to the individual to not sleep around with anybody. Theres too much Promiscurity around these days. Theres a lack of positive Gay Role Models around.

  4. Also- lesbians must be God’s Chosen People as they have the lowest rate of HIV infections of all.

  5. So Tom, I guess that God hates black people even more- that’s why they make up the biggest number of HIV infections on the planet. :)
    God must really be racist, he’s trying to wipe them out, as he must really hate black people.
    (meant as sarcasm, as opposed to Tom’s commnent which obviously isn’t. Thanks to our government-sponsored homophobic laws-including new homophobic laws for the new milenium in the 2004 marriage ban- people like Tom can feel we are under their thumb as 2nd class citizens to stamp us down even further into low self esteem. Give us equal rights, and equal self esteem, and that will be a great platform to move forward on.)

  6. I think it’s quite a tragedy that in this day and age there are still so many infections. A decrease of 50 or so infections is NOTHING compared to 900 people getting infected! What is going on with our prevention programs that this is considered a good result? Surely there should only be a handful of infections every year at this point in our education!

  7. Asquith,

    I would not worry about Tom.

    He is a sicko. Do not give that thing oxygen. He is a confused homosexual writing here and a coward. Studies on people like Tom show they think of dicks up there arse when they masturbate. They are actually confused homosexuals. People happy about there sexuality do not come to gay websites getting off at people dying of AIDS. What else can we say, he is just a sicko.

    He hates us because it is the part of himself he hates. He abuses us as it is a way of saying “I am not one of them”. But the fact is he is. He would boast to his friends about how bad fagots are to prove to everyone he is not gay. He does have feelings for men. That is why he is drawn to us.

    Cheers,

    Dave

  8. Also id like to add,”Faggots” pay tax to support disease’s/government service’s that do not directly affect themselves.

    I just love the mentality of “if doesn’t bother me then I don’t want a part of it” – Its always homophobes who use this to attack disease’s that is somewhat seen as “gay”.

  9. I think many people do not get tested anymore. I remember when the notices of people who died were in our papers. Now it seems AIDS is so remote. It is not.

  10. Sorry to rain on the parade but with the culture of unsafe sex rampant in our community ( just go on line and have a look !)i believe there is a huge pool of undiagnosed new infections which are yet to rear their ugly heads .

  11. A thousand people catching HIV every single year is way too many- that’s 5,000 over 5 years. Why do we still put up with so much bulls..t & homophobia from our governments (state and federal).

  12. i dont think our hard earned tax payer money should be going towards this faggots disease. they get what they deserve.