HIV Australia 2018

In his 1993 memoir Take Me to Paris, Johnny, Australian historian John Foster recalls the fear and paranoia surrounding his HIV positive partner, Juan Céspedes, when he was admitted to hospital in the late 1980s.

Since it exploded into the human population in the early 1980s, HIV has been wrangled into some form of control through enormous advocacy and research efforts.

It is hard to know where to start, or perhaps more to the point, where it starts. But it seems to me that it starts with a feeling. Something unrecognised, subtle at first. Vague and at the edges of awareness.

It is 36 years since the first signs of a devastating new epidemic were noted and reported, but that is only one way of noting when HIV or AIDS, as it was then, began. It probably began on a whole series of different days.

I remember the moment as if it were only yesterday. I was sitting at the back of a lecture theatre at the Alfred Hospital in 1998 listening to Dr Jackie Mein present research data from a study we had undertaken in the Northern territory.

On 5 June 1981, I was studying first year medicine at the University of Sydney. I had just moved to Sydney from the United States where I had spent three years living with my mother and her new husband.

Drug-resistant gonorrhoea is a looming problem for Australian sexual health. However, with vigilance and preparation, we can prevent this potential crisis coming to fruition.

Transcript from an interview with Professor Christopher Fairley and AFAO Deputy CEO Heath Paynter.

Trans and gender diverse people experience multiple barriers to HIV prevention. Methodology prevents their appearance in research and surveillance systems, while the health workforce’s awareness of the needs of trans and gender diverse people is generally poor.

Australia’s world class public health system is built on universality and solidarity. It is high time we amplified these values by embracing people who are either living with HIV or at risk of it, but ineligible for Medicare.

Treatment as Prevention (TasP) and HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) have dominated media on HIV in Australia in the last year. However, an overlooked biomedical prevention method, Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), deserves to stay firmly on the radar of the community-led HIV response.

It has been a lengthy process to list Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) on Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Punitive laws against people with HIV to prevent HIV transmission are ineffective and unsupported by evidence.

Substance use invites stigma and stereotype. But just as the code of silence around domestic violence and mental health is finally breaking down, perhaps a shift is also required in our national conversation about drug use.

Crystal meth, mephedrone and GHB/GBL raise the heart rate, blood pressure and sex drive. They are key ingredients in Chemsex –  sex between men that occurs under the influence of drugs taken immediately before or during sex. In Australia this is also known as Party and Play (or PnP).

Syphilis rates among gay and bisexual men in Australia have fluctuated between 2010-2016, with a declining trend in both HIV positive and HIV negative gay and bisexual from 2014-2016, yet incidence is still high

An interview with Dr Jeanne Ellard, AFAO’s Senior Research Officer.

An interview with Teddy Cook from PASH.tm (the Peer Advocacy Network for the Sexual Health of Trans Masculinities) at the AFAO Members’ Meeting in May 2018.

An interview with Dr Nadine Ezard (Clinical Director of Alcohol and Drugs at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney) at the AFAO Members’ Meeting in May 2018.

An interview with Dr Lucette Cysique from the University of NSW at the AFAO Members’ Meeting in May 2018.

An interview with Gai Stackpool from the Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service in NSW at the AFAO Members’ Meeting in May 2018.

An interview with Donatella Cifali from the Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service in NSW at the AFAO Members’ Meeting in May 2018.

An interview with Dr Christopher (Kit) Fairley (Director at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre)at the AFAO Members’ Meeting in May 2018.

An interview with Dr Adam Bourne from ARCSHS (the Australian Research Centre for Sex, Health and Society) at Latrobe University at the AFAO Members’ Meeting in May 2018.