Australia: On the Prowl

The state of Victoria, Australia, employs sex detectives, formally known as contact tracers, to track down partners of people with STDs (HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia and hepatitis B and C) and TB. The public health nurses, part of the Department of Human Services, work in pairs, often with sketchy details, to discreetly track down former partners of "index" patients whose names remain confidential.

"We don't roll up in a government car, we don't have red number plates, and we don't wear white coats," says Tom Carter, a contact tracer since 1983. However, they may have to knock on doors or visit nightclubs at 2 a.m. as part of their search.

When the coroner finds STDs in a corpse, the tracers talk to relatives and doctors to investigate the deceased's history, then track down sexual partners who might have been put at risk.

Professor Kit Farley, director of the Melbourne Sexual Health Center, said contact tracers are an integral part of any STD control program. "They are particularly important in countries with relatively low rates of sexually transmitted infection like Australia," he noted.

Robert Hall, Victoria's director of public health and chief health officer, said contact tracing aims to prevent re-infections. "You never actually see the results but the tracers do save lives," he said. The tracers also manage the "knowing and reckless" -- those who know they are infected but continue to put others at risk.

Last year, new HIV cases in Victoria increased by 7 percent over 2001, and the incidence of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia rose significantly. Carter blamed the increases on safe sex "message fatigue" and said a new HIV awareness campaign is in order.

"I think we need a mass campaign that isn't selective -- that says, 'AIDS is still here,'" Carter maintained. "I know that unsafe sex is happening across the board."

Back to other news for August 7, 2003