AIDS in Australia has been virtually eliminated, an Australian-led international team of researchers reports this week. However, as the experts point out, the HIV epidemic remains, with over 1000 new HIV diagnoses a year.
Here’s what they had to say:
Professor Andrew Grulich is a Professor and Program Head of the HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program at the Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society at the University of New South Wales:
“AIDS in Australia has become uncommon, and we are doing better than almost anywhere else on earth but it is not over. 150 people a year present with severe immune deficiency, and while most improve with treatment, they are at risk of dying. This particularly effects people who don’t test for HIV – e.g. people who don’t speak English, women, some gay men. Continued focus on increasing HIV testing is critical to get these numbers down.
Australia’s success is due to high level continuing investment in the community response, research and clinical services. The strength of our surveillance monitoring system, which alerts us to changing trends in infection so that we can respond swiftly has also played an extremely important role. While we have no vaccine or cure – we need continued high level investment in HIV research, community organisations and clinical services.
Unfortunately, while AIDS is under control, we are seeing over 1000 new HIV diagnoses a year which is about 30% higher than a decade ago.
New HIV prevention technologies give us a realistic chance of driving HIV infections down in the next few years: we need to rollout PrEP (pre exposure prophylaxis*) to high-risk gay men, and to do this, we need the PBS to fund the use of the drug.
If we invest in PrEP, HIV testing, and early HIV treatment, we can work towards the virtual elimination of HIV by 2020.
With PrEP we have targets to virtually eliminate HIV transmissions in Australia for 2020. These targets may seem ambitious, but with continued investment, Australia is well positioned to make it happen.”
Darryl O’Donnell is Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO):