GenQ

ACON today welcomed a commitment from the NSW Government to continue its investment in HIV research, as new figures showed that HIV rates in NSW have remained stable over the past 10 years.

ACON, NSW’s leading non-government HIV/AIDS organisation, applauded the additional $500,000 in research grants announced by NSW Minister for Health Reba Meagher to fund three new studies by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research.

ACON CEO Stevie Clayton said today’s announcement by the NSW Government is extremely encouraging for ACON and other HIV/AIDS organisation in their strategies for HIV prevention and education.

“The new figures released today by the Minister for Health show there were 404 new HIV notifications in NSW in 2007, which is less than the annual rate ten years ago but still a small increase over 2006,” she said. “Most importantly there has been no increase in the rate of new infections but an increase in new diagnoses which means that we are catching cases where people may have had HIV for a while. Getting diagnosed enables people to change their behaviour to prevent infecting others and seek treatment before their own health is too greatly impacted.”

It is important that we continue to focus on bringing down the rate of infection but this result shows that NSW continues to avoid the big rises seen in most other states. The education campaigns and prevention strategies that have being developed and promoted by ACON as well as a whole range of allied HIV/AIDS and health organisations such as NSW Health, Positive Life NSW, area health services, GP’s and research bodies, have played a major part in this success, as has the continuing investment by the NSW Government.”

Accurate and up-to-date research is a vital part of the HIV response and Ms Clayton praised the grant to investigate developing understandings of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) in gay men, particularly aged in their thirties and forties, who continue to engage in behaviours that are likely to maintain or even increase the current rates of transmission of HIV and other STIs.

“Sex between men continues to account for over 70% of all new diagnoses,” Ms Clayton said, “so further research into this area will contribute to refining education strategies to keep infection rates low.”

Ms Clayton also commended the grants to map STI prevalence and access to health services among Sydney’s female sex workers of whom there is a dire lack of knowledge, and research for the pilot project to map current STI testing, service provision and population access in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services will also be invaluable to develop and implement a comprehensive STI testing and management program.

Tags: acon, aids, hiv