Australia: Alarming Increase in HIV Notifications

The Australian state of Victoria is reporting new HIV diagnoses at levels not seen since the early 1990s, state Health Minister Bronwyn Pike warned recently. In 2005, there were 286 diagnoses, and Victoria reported 198 notifications for the first six months of this year. In 1991, Victoria reported 317 diagnoses.

"Clearly there is a need for action" to combat complacency about HIV, said Pike. "What happened in the past is that people died of AIDS; now, with improved drugs, people live with AIDS," she said.

Pike said the state is allocating $2.7 million Australian ($2 million US) in additional funds for new awareness programs for HIV/STDs.

"We need to be much more targeted to specific groups," said Pike. "Certainly men who have sex with men, and particularly men in that older age group who have become very complacent and not heeded the message of safe sex."

Treatment optimism could be a factor in the increase in risk-taking behavior, but the causes need more study, said Dr. Robert Hall, Victoria's chief medical officer. "In the past, people in the affected community saw all of their friends die from this infection. We're now seeing that people can survive for quite a long time with treatment."

"There needs to be proper funding of HIV community organizations who are at the front line and educating gay men," said Paul Kidd, who contracted HIV sexually 21 years ago. He dismissed as ineffective the approach of a 1987 AIDS prevention campaign that featured a hooded figure of death, the Grim Reaper, in a bowling alley striking down people with AIDS. "The Grim Reaper was extremely effective in demonizing gay men and making people fearful of gay men and increasing the stigma of HIV," said Kidd.

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