Queensland gets $5.7 million boost in sexual health funding
Image: Qld Health Minister Cameron Dick speaking at the 2015 World AIDS Day Vigil in Brisbane. (PHOTO: David Alexander; Star Observer)
HEALTH and Ambulance Services Minister Cameron Dick has announced a $5.7 million injection of extra sexual health funding for Queensland.
Dick said that $1.5 million will go towards statewide programs for sexual health education, and an additional $3.7 million will be split across a number of regions and services to add much-needed skills and resources.
Looking to regional Queensland, Townsville, Wide Bay, and the Gold Coast will each receive $481,000 extra funding over the next four years for their sexual health services.
Dick said the funding will improve the regional health services’ capacity to provide support, testing, and treatment for STIs, HIV and viral hepatitis.
“Good sexual health is an important facet of the overall health and wellbeing of Queenslanders,” Dick said.
“There are challenges in this area of health, including rising rates of some STIs, issues relating to reproductive health, increasing numbers of people living with HIV, and the discrimination and stigmatisation that is often associated with sexual health related matters.”
The funding comes as part of the Queensland Sexual Health Strategy, which is underpinned by a $62 million suite of actions targeting sexually transmissible infections, HIV, and viral hepatitis.
The funding announcement follows news earlier this month of federal funding cuts to Indigenous sexual health in Queensland.
