Syringe. Credit: Andres Rueda/flickr
By Rich Bowden
Three linked public health reports in Australia have found a worrying rise in HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among the country’s Indigenous population, injecting drug users and men who have sex with other men.
The research, conducted by the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and to be to be presented at the Australasian HIV/AIDS Conference 2009 in Brisbane, found that, while the prevalence of HIV in Australia remains at one of the lowest in the world, at about 0.1 percent, there were worrying trends in parts of the community.
The report “Bloodborne viral and sexually transmitted infections in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: Surveillance and Evaluation Report 2009”, also to be released today, indicates that HIV infection among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people was increasing and was attributed to injecting drug use in 22 per cent of cases over the past five years.
Urgent Action Needed
“We are following the path of the Canadian Indigenous population, where HIV and huge numbers of hepatitis C diagnoses are reported following increased drug injecting patterns,” said James Ward, head of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR).
“We need to act urgently to bring down injecting drug use rates and high rates of bacterial STIs in Aboriginal communities before HIV becomes entrenched,” he said.
The report also discovered that the rate of gonorrhoea, chlamydia and infectious syphilis were much higher in Aboriginal communities than in the general population, particularly in the 15 to 19 year age group.
The study concluded that the lack of access to quality primary health care facilities may have contributed to the higher rate in isolated Indigenous communities.
Originally published in The Tech Herald.
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