The number of newly diagnosed HIV infections in Australia rose by 10 per cent last year, showing that we're continuing to fail our young men and women, writes Robert Mitchell.
Earlier this year, health ministers around Australia considered the state and national response to HIV.
They were provided with advice about the new advances in preventing and treating HIV. These developments and the latest research results have given the world the knowledge and means to make dramatic reductions in new infections and HIV-related illnesses and deaths. In 2012, a worldwide commitment was made to achieving an "AIDS-free generation" through the adoption of global targets to be implemented by every country, with Australia leading that call.
Domestically, we have seen a public health commitment in August this year to our own national targets for the Australian HIV response. These have been supported by every health minister. They include targets for reducing the sexual transmission of HIV by 50 per cent by 2015, and increasing treatment uptake by 90 per cent of the population of people living with HIV.
These efforts see Australia poised to change the course of HIV within Australia. And this week, at the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine Conference in Darwin, reports are being released that show stark evidence as to why this urgently needs to be advanced.
These reports include new 2012 HIV national surveillance figures and compilation of data for sexually transmissible and blood borne infections in Australia. They make for sober reading. STIs such as chlamydia remain the most frequently reported infection and mainly amongst young heterosexuals. Gonorrhoea and syphilis rates continue to increase among gay men, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are experiencing higher rates of all of these STIs than in the non-Indigenous population. In addition, the number of newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection in Australia continues to rise, having increased by 10 per cent in 2012.
Some 1,253 newly diagnosed cases of HIV represents the largest number in 20 years, and reflects the trend of a steady increase of new diagnoses since the late nineties. These figures - a year old but currently the most comprehensive guide to what is going on across the national population - could not be more powerful for focussing all partners in the area of HIV health, medicine and prevention. Indeed, the Australian community should expect that every appropriate public health program and community initiative is scrutinised to address the trends we are seeing, and then reverse them significantly.
With the 7th National HIV strategy currently in development, there are essential elements which must be included in this guiding document for an effective national strategy. We need to make more testing options and access available, and promote testing and treatments in new ways and to those at highest risk. We need to devise more timely and comprehensive surveillance systems so we can be on top of shifts in trends and address critical areas; galvanise community efforts with new resources for increasingly greater tasks; and place leadership accountability as critical indicators for all sector partners to be measured.
Australia is currently experiencing a flagging HIV response, and the disturbing data at hand, married to unsatisfactory levels of testing and treatment uptake, will only see this slide continue. The outcome will be more Australians bearing the burden of disease.
Our fragmented and stretched resources and activities, compounded by complacency or even resistance to change to the models of previous years, must be addressed and in bold and decisive ways.
Australia's approach to HIV can be revitalised and this country can once again be a leader in the region and the world for meeting our set targets and implementing new measures for exceptional results. We have the capacity for significant additional activity brought to the policies and programs that are prioritised, and we must see action and leadership again.
The International AIDS Conference to be held in Melbourne in 2014 will see Australia's response put under the spotlight. We must realise our promises and commitments, not just to the world, but to our own country and the young Australian men and women relying on this next strategy and its success.
Robert Mitchell is President of the National Association of People Living With HIV Australia. View his full profile here.