Remembering grim times
The 1987 Grim Reaper AIDS-awareness television campaign was commemorated last Thursday when members of the original NACAIDS team who approved the ad came together 20 years on to reflect on the campaign’s successes and look to the future.
Standing next to a cowled Grim Reaper figure, former NACAIDS chair Ita Buttrose ran the haunting advertisement that woke Australia to the potential threat of HIV in a time when infection meant almost certain death.
Lowy HIV/AIDS Project director Bill Bowtell called on the current administration to continue the partnership between government, community and clinicians that separated Australia from the abstinence strategies used elsewhere in the world.
Bowtell said the success of the partnership strategy was clear with infection rates in Australia approximately one-tenth those of the US.
Bowtell also warned of the new threat to Australia from complacency and the large number of infections in the Pacific region.
Current top AIDS advisor and former health minister Michael Wooldridge praised the public health community for rallying around the important issue like never before.
Wooldridge also praised the Australian bipartisan approach that allowed a period of extraordinary stability in public policy.
