Ad plan to curb AIDS rise

A RISE in HIV cases along the eastern seaboard has prompted calls for a federal government AIDS prevention program more effective than the “Grim Reaper” campaign of the 1980s.

A RISE in HIV cases along the eastern seaboard has prompted calls for a federal government AIDS prevention program more effective than the “Grim Reaper” campaign of the 1980s.New HIV infections in 2002 increased 20 per cent in Queensland on the previous year, and unofficial figures for NSW showed a 3 to 8 per cent rise, the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations said yesterday.This is the first time infection rates for Queensland and NSW have risen since the 1987 AIDS campaign, in which the Reaper was shown knocking down infected people in a bowling alley. It is the third consecutive year of increases for Victoria.The federation says the three states represent 90 per cent of the 700 Australians infected with HIV.”These increases should ring a fairly big bell,” said national AFAO president Bill Whittaker. “This is the first time we’ve seen a turn upwards in HIV infections in Queensland and NSW since the late 1980s.”Mr Whittaker said the trend could show the prevention campaign was failing to educate gay and bisexual men, who constitute the majority of new cases.He said there were myths about HIV treatment as a cure, and a belief, mostly among young gay men practising unsafe sex, that their youth would make them resistant to HIV.The federal Government completed a review of its national AIDS strategy last year, with recommendations including new education and prevention campaigns. The report has remained with Health Minister Kay Patterson since last November.”Delivering the HIV prevention message is much more complicated today than it was in the 80s, and that’s why we need a really strong and effective national AIDS strategy,” Mr Whittaker said.A spokesman for Senator Patterson said the review would be released shortly, and that the minister was “not sitting on anything”.The national AIDS strategy was funded until mid-2004 and was “working well”, he said. (Source: The Australian, Rebecca DiGirolamo, May 29, 2003)