FACT SHEET: HIV/AIDS in Australia and the Region
Oceania
• • An estimated 7,100 people in Oceania acquired HIV in 2006, bringing to 81,000 the number of people living with the virus (UNAIDS, 2006). Three-quarters of those persons are in Papua New Guinea, where the epidemic is serious and growing. (UNAIDS, 2006).
Asia
• • • An estimated 8.6 million people were living with HIV in Asia in 2006, including the 960,000 people who became newly infected in the past year. (WHO/UNAIDS, 2006). Approximately 630,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2006. The number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy has increased more than threefold since 2003, and reached an estimated 235,000 by June 2006. This represents about 16% of the total number of people in need of antiretroviral treatment in Asia. (WHO/UNAIDS, 2006). Only Thailand has succeeded in providing treatment to at least 50% of people needing it (WHO/UNAIDS, 2006).
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Australia
• Australia’s HIV epidemic still centres mainly on unprotected sex between men, which has accounted for more than two-thirds of newly diagnosed HIV infections so far this decade. (National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR), 2006). New HIV diagnoses peaked at over 1,000 annually in the late-1980s and early1990s, and then declined to between 500 and 600 at the turn of the century. In recent years, though, new diagnoses have been rising again—to 899 in 2004 and 954 in 2005 (NCHECR, 2006). A resurgence of unprotected sex between men appears to be the major risk factor for these new infections. In one recent study in Sydney and Melbourne, the majority of recently infected men who have sex with men reported high rates of unprotected sex with multiple partners (Volk et al., 2006). The tenfold increase in syphilis cases between 1999 and 2003 (Fairley, Hocking and Medland, 2005) and the sharp increases since 2000 in unprotected sex between men in Sydney (Prestage et al., 2005) suggest that the preventive practices nurtured in the 1980s and 1990s have lost some of their effect. Australia’s epidemic follows a somewhat different pattern in the country’s Indigenous population, among whom exposure to non-sterile injecting drug use equipment is a major factor; it accounted for one in five HIV diagnoses in Indigenous persons in 2000–2004 (compared with fewer than one in twenty diagnoses in the overall population) (NCHECR, 2005). Indigenous women are especially at risk for HIV infection: they are 18 times more likely to be HIV-infected than are non-Indigenous women, and three times more likely than non-Indigenous men (Wright et al., 2005). Meanwhile, the benefits of improved antiretroviral therapy are evident in the longer survival rates of persons diagnosed with AIDS. (NCHECR, 2005). It is estimated that more than half (53%) of the people living with HIV in 2004 were receiving antiretroviral therapy (NCHECR, 2005).
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Australia’s widely respected response to the HIV/AIDS crisis that emerged in the 1980’s has been characterised by both a bipartisan political approach to the issue at both a state and national level and a proactive role by the Federal Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs in addressing the pandemic in countries in the neighbouring Asia Pacific region. (www.health.gov.au or www.ausaid.gov.au)
The HIV/AIDS Sector in Australia
• • • • • Australia’s widely respected response to the HIV/AIDS crisis that emerged in the 1980’s has been characterised by a bipartisan political approach to the issue at both a state and national levels. Australia’s response to HIV/AIDS is also characterised by a committed and extensive nongovernmental framework. Each state and territory has its own AIDS Council, which provides HIV prevention, health promotion, advocacy, care and support services to people living with HIV in the community, including Indigenous people, injection drug users, and sex workers. The AIDS Councils are all members of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO), Australia’s peak HIV/AIDS body (www.afao.org.au). AFAO provides leadership, coordination and support to the national policy, advocacy and health promotion response to HIV/AIDS. Internationally, it contributes to the development of effective policy and programmatic responses to HIV/AIDS at regional and global levels. AFAO’s work is primarily directed towards population groups where it has the highest level of expertise and where the incidence of HIV or the risk of HIV is greatest, namely: gay men, HIV positive people, injecting drug users, sex workers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Other AFAO members include: the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA), the Australian Sex Worker Association (Scarlet Alliance) and the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) Medical professionals, caregivers and clinicians specializing and working in HIV/AIDS are represented by the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM). ASHM is a cohost of IAS 2007 www.ashm.org.au
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Research
• • Australia has a well established surveillance structure that informs policy makers of trends in both sexual behaviour and epidemiology. NCHECR is one of Australia’s leading medical research centres and is recognised internationally as a leader in the field of research into HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis. The NCHECR oversees the collation and publication of National Surveillance data. (http://web.med.unsw.edu.au/nchecr ) The National Centre in HIV Social Research (NCHSR) conducts research which describes and analyses the social understandings, meanings and practices of peoples, institutions and communities in relation to HIV, Hepatitis C and other communicable diseases. (http://nchsr.arts.unsw.edu.au) There have been a number of vaccine initiatives with Australian participation. For further information, contact AFOA at: www.afao.org.au (This website also has links to all major HIV/AIDS organizations in Australia.)
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Australian Media Contacts
• • • • • AFAO – Bridget Haire, Media Officer, + 61 2 9557 9399 ACON (formerly AIDS Council of NSW) - Michael Badorrek, Media and Communications Manager, +61 2 9206 2001 ASHM – Levinia Crooks, Executive Director, +61 2 8204 0700 AUSAID – Media Desk, +61 (0) 417 680 590 NCHECR, NCHSR, University of NSW – Susi Hamilton, Office of Communications, + 61 2 9385 1583
Main WHO/UNAIDS Source: AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2006. Available online at: www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data/epi2006/default.asp