Today in Sydney, a panel of experts and activists gathered on the eve of World AIDS Day to call for renewed prevention efforts and to warn against complacency.

Don Baxter, executive director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations, urged Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd to make HIV/AIDS a top priority. "Commonwealth investment in AIDS programs was allowed to steadily decrease over the last decade, yet HIV has been on the rise for the last five years in all states except New South Wales," he said.

Panel member Vince Lovegrove, a longtime AIDS campaigner, said prevention efforts are needed to protect a new generation at risk. "We need another Grim Reaper campaign," he said, referring to a stark public awareness effort from the epidemic's earlier years. "It showed the public this is serious. We need to mobilize the whole of society, and you don't do that unless you confront them on television."

Sydney Sexual Health Center Director Basil Donovan said AIDS complacency is a serious problem and that prevention is always better than a cure. "We all want [a cure], but do we really need one? Because I am not sure it will solve our problem. What happens when you get a cure, and even now with the highly effective antiretroviral therapy, is that it helps this compartmentalization, where [people say] 'Oh well, if I get it I can get treated.'"

Also today, the New South Wales government announced it would mark World AIDS Day by giving $20 million (US $17.7 million) to various nongovernmental groups that work to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.

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