HIV Australia 2015

Male Sex Work and Society is 500 pages with 17 essays and research pieces presented in four sections: historical, marketing of male sex work, current social and cultural issues and seven case studies of social and cultural variations between different countries.

The most effective way of preventing the spread of HIV is to protect the human rights of the persons at risk. These are the vulnerable and marginalised members of our society.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI). Most sexually active people come into contact with it at some time in their lives. HPV causes common warts, genital warts and a range of cancers, including cancers of the anus, cervix, penis, vagina, vulva, and the neck and throat.

Timothy Moore was the author of many of Australia’s best policy responses to the challenge of reducing HIV-related and other harms associated with drug use.

HIV epidemics throughout their history have been influenced by international mobility, changing as a result of globalisation, rapid urbanisation and mass mobility. In the last decade, the issue has been growing in profile in Australia due to increasing HIV diagnoses related to international mobility.

Within New South Wales, the adoption of bold targets has been considered a critical force for recent change in the HIV response. Establishing clear HIV targets has provided important opportunities to refocus HIV prevention and treatment work. Engendering support and engagement in response to the targets has played a critical role in much of work to achieve those goals and targets.

Despite a public health approach forming the basis of Australia’s response to HIV, other approaches have been used to respond to the epidemic, including use of the criminal justice system.

Sex workers have been advocating for decades for the full decriminalisation of sex work and now it seems we have very persuasive evidence from The Lancet series on HIV and sex workers.

As a young volunteer in a drop-in centre for drug users in Yunnan Province, China, I was advised that above all I was there to ‘do no harm’. It was some of the best advice I have ever been given.

As awareness about HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) grows in Australia, the US experience with PrEP, where it has been approved since July 2012, offers some useful insights. This lecture, excerpts of which follow below, honours Sir Moti Tikaram’s legacy of fighting against discrimination based on race and ethnicity in Fiji, and reflects on current discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people across the region.

On 31 October 2014, at the University of Fiji, the Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG, gave the Sir Moti Tikaram Memorial Lecture of 2014, entitled ‘Human Rights, Race and Sexuality in the Pacific – Regarding Others as Ourselves’.

This lecture, excerpts of which follow below, honours Sir Moti Tikaram’s legacy of fighting against discrimination based on race and ethnicity in Fiji, and reflects on current discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people across the region.

On the first day of the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne in July 2014, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council released the AIDS 2014 Legacy Statement, a statement agreed to by all of Australia’s Health Ministers pledging to work towards the virtual elimination of HIV transmission in Australia by the end of 2020.
Drawing on experience in NSW, it is reasonable to suggest that setting targets has the capacity to energise and revitalise the response to HIV, but only if those targets are accompanied by supportive environments and technological advancement.

This article explores some of the benefits of setting targets, and also some of the limitations that are hindering progress.

The latest National HIV Strategy includes, for the first time, numeric targets for reducing the rate of HIV transmissions in Australia.

Drawing on experience in NSW, it is reasonable to suggest that setting targets has the capacity to energise and revitalise the response to HIV, but only if those targets are accompanied by supportive environments and technological advancement.

This article explores some of the benefits of setting targets, and also some of the limitations that are hindering progress.

It seems logical to say that if you increase the rate of HIV testing within a target community, you will be hoping to see an increase in diagnoses among that population.

Drawing on experience in NSW, it is reasonable to suggest that setting targets has the capacity to energise and revitalise the response to HIV, but only if those targets are accompanied by supportive environments and technological advancement.

This article explores some of the benefits of setting targets, and also some of the limitations that are hindering progress.

Five years out, targets that have been set for 2020 are looming larger in the consciousness of HIV policy makers, advocates, community educators and health workers.

Drawing on experience in NSW, it is reasonable to suggest that setting targets has the capacity to energise and revitalise the response to HIV, but only if those targets are accompanied by supportive environments and technological advancement.

This article explores some of the benefits of setting targets, and also some of the limitations that are hindering progress.

Your Medicare card is one of the most important cards in your wallet. Medicare is the only way people in Australia can access subsidised medications through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

In a series on HIV prevention for The Lancet in 2008, Coates and colleagues describe combination prevention as behavioural, biomedical and structural approaches that are ‘combined strategically to address local epidemics’

There is no shortage of HIV policy documents outlining the ‘centrality’ of human rights to an effective HIV response, including the United Nations’ (UN) 2011 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS,2 UNAIDS’ 2011–2015 strategy, ‘Getting to Zero’3 and the 2012 Global Commission on HIV and the Law report.

The Seventh National HIV Strategy has laid out a set of bold goals and targets to turn around the tide of rising infections and bring the HIV epidemic in Australia to an end.

Since the launch of the first government response to HIV in 1989, successive national HIV strategies have guided Australia’s partnership response in the areas of HIV prevention, treatment, care and human rights.

Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is a month-long course of HIV treatments taken within 72 hours of suspected HIV exposure (the sooner the better) to prevent seroconversion.

Through Our Eyes: Thirty years of people living with HIV responding to the HIV and AIDS epidemics in Australia is an anthology which spans the extensive history of HIV in Australia.

Opening Plenary delivered at the Civil Society and Communities Bangkok Partnership Forum, 24–25 June 2015.

‘[PrEP] is a very expensive way to reduce the risk of HIV transmission, when we know that NSP (needle syringe programs) and handing out harm reduction supplies is such an effective way to reduce HIV, and a lot cheaper.

Christy Newman, Asha Persson, Graham Brown, Jeanne Ellard and Ben Bavinton look at how treatment as prevention is liberating serodiscordant couples from discourses of risk.

Jennifer Power says that disappointing microbicide trial results among women to date are a reflection of HIV stigma and the complex realities of women’s lives.

Cameron Cox, Joel Falcon and Gemma Keegan outline sex workers’ concerns about the potential for coercive approaches to biomedical prevention.

NIC HOLAS explains how ‘an experiment in community organising’ has become a major network and advocacy platform for people living with HIV.

Christy Newman, John de Wit, Asha Persson, Martin Holt, Limin Mao, Sean Slavin and Michael Kidd share the perspectives of people with HIV who are not currently using HIV treatment.

Martin Holt discusses research showing conflicting views and beliefs about biomedical prevention among Australian gay and bisexual men.

DEAN MURPHY looks at the growing trend of personal PrEP importation in Australia and considers the multiple representations of biomedical prevention.

Fiona Bisshop addresses some common concerns about PrEP and explains that it’s easy to manage with the support of your GP.

CLOVIS PALMER provides a round-up of current research and debates on PrEP and HIV prevention, and says that current limitations can be used as a guide to improve its implementation.

SEAN SLAVIN explores the impact of treatment as prevention on health promotion, canvassing the views of people from Australian HIV organisations and other health experts.

BILL WHITTAKER reflects on the long debate about when to start HIV treatment, at a pivotal moment in the HIV response.

SUSAN KIPPAX unpacks the real world implications of treatment as prevention research, noting an important distinction between ‘efficacy’ and ‘effectiveness’.

Michael Hurley farewells an old friend and stalwart of the global HIV response, paying tribute to his work and life philosophies.

Queensland Positive People (QPP) has launched a new series of short films featuring five diverse people living with HIV (PLHIV) discussing HIV treatment and the ways that HIV treatment has changed.

In this superb collection, twenty-two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people share their stories in powerful accounts of identity, belonging, colonisation and liberation.

In this superb collection, twenty-two Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people share their stories in powerful accounts of identity, belonging, colonisation and liberation.

Indian Blood is a study conducted by Professor Andrew Jolivette, exploring the intersection of gender, sexuality, mixed-race identity and HIV among mixed-race, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or two-spirit (MLGBTQ2s) identifying American Indians living in urban areas.

In July 2014, the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) and the International Indigenous Pre-conference on HIV & AIDS were held in Australia for the very first time.

‘It was real good spray painting and stuff, we had a lot of fun. And we learnt more about HIV which I didn’t even know what it meant when I first went to class’.

— Participant

The Kirketon Road Centre (KRC) is a primary health care facility based in Sydney’s Kings Cross, established in April 1987, as a result of a recommendation of the New South Wales Parliamentary Select Committee on Prostitution.

When launching our Reconciliation Action Plan two years ago and setting out on our personal and organisational reconciliation journey, we didn’t fundamentally change our commitment to serving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The Kirketon Road Centre (KRC) is a primary health care facility based in Sydney’s Kings Cross, established in April 1987, as a result of a recommendation of the New South Wales Parliamentary Select Committee on Prostitution.

Indigenous people globally remain at higher risk of HIV and sexually transmissible infections (STIs) than non-Indigenous people.

Since 1994, a small cohort (approximately 20 people) of heterosexual HIV-positive clients in remote Australia has been managed by a team of health care providers. The philosophy of this service is not only to deliver high quality clinical care, but to have a culturally appropriate, holistic approach, with strong social and practical support.

This article reflects the work of the multidisciplinary team of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers, doctors, pharmacists, psychologists and nurses at Cairns Sexual Health to improve the treatment outcomes for HIV-positive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Although the AIDS pandemic reached Australia in 1984, it was not until a decade later that funding was allocated for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs at AIDS Councils, and Aboriginal responses to HIV began being led around Australia.

A key outcome from the inaugural Anwernekenhe conference was the recommendation to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HIV and AIDS Project in each AIDS Council in Australia.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program was established at The Kirby Institute in 2007.

In 2012, the ACON Aboriginal project, in response to the need to encourage Aboriginal1 gay and homosexually active men to test for HIV more frequently, commenced planning to develop the Aboriginal Gay Men’s HIV Testing Campaign.

Condoman is Australia’s best known HIV health promotion campaigns, but there is a long history of innovative and culturally sensitive HIV health promotion in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

ANTHYM is the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth Committee focused on sexual and reproductive health education for this generation and future generations.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HIV Awareness Week (ATSIHAW) is an annual program of events that seeks to raise awareness about the impact of HIV among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HIV Awareness Week (ATSIHAW) is an annual program of events that seeks to raise awareness about the impact of HIV among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

On the final Day of Anwernekenhe 6, Linda Forbes, Policy and Communications Manager at AFAO, gave an address reflecting on the importance of Anwernekenhe’s 21 years, the Anwernekenhe National HIV Alliance’s (ANA) ongoing relationship with AFAO and its current funding situation.

Werte! Let me begin by paying my respects to the traditional owners of country in Mbantua, to their elders both past and present, to Helen Liddle and your extended family – thank you for welcoming us all here on country.

Anwernekenhe 6 served as an opportunity to celebrate 21 years of Anwernekenhe events.

On Thursday 12 November, Anwernekenhe National HIV Alliance (ANA) Chair, Neville Fazulla, officially opened the Anwernekenhe 6 conference in Alice Springs.

‘We recognise HIV/AIDS as a major health care threat to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We also recognise and acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are dying alone and in shame of AIDS. This must stop’.

The cover image for our special Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander edition of HIV Australia is Anwernekenhe – ‘Us Mob’, Aunty Gloria Beckett, 2003.

It is with great pleasure that we launch the second special edition of HIV Australia dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health issues.