FED: 25 years of HIV testing in Australia

AAP General News (Australia)
04-16-2010
FED: 25 years of HIV testing in Australia

By Danny Rose, Medical Writer

SYDNEY, April 16 AAP - The test for HIV, a development that changed the trajectory
of the AIDS illness globally and saved countless lives, arrived in Australia 25 years
ago this week.

The antibody test for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was released to a public spooked
by the rapid emergence of a strange and deadly disease in mid-April of 1985.

It arrived four years after the world's first cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
(AIDS) were detected in the US, and more than two years after Australia recorded its first
AIDS case in November 1982.

"When I started working with HIV in the mid-80s, quite a lot of people within a short
period of time knew somebody with AIDS," said Levinia Crooks, chief executive of the Australian
Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM).

"... And not a long time after that, a lot of people had known somebody who had died of AIDS.

"Then we went to `Grim Reaper` (ad campaign) days, when people were madly getting tested
and were very, very concerned."

HIV was identified as the viral precursor to AIDS in 1984 and a test capable of detecting
HIV soon followed.

It has become one of Australia's most widely used tests with 40 per cent of the adult
population estimated to have had it at least once.

A HIV test is routinely offered to planning or newly pregnant women and people undertaking
STD tests, while it is a requirement for those applying to enter the armed forces and
other jobs.

A 2008 study found 80 per cent of gay men in Australia had undergone at least one HIV
test, while a third of all gay men have the test every six months.

Australia now performs about 900,000 HIV tests every year, a level that Ms Crooks described
as "good".

"That doesn't mean that it couldn't be better, and there may be some people who may
never have been tested," she said.

"But looking at a population level, I think there has been a remarkable uptake of testing."

Australia has recorded less than 30,000 HIV infections since records began, and the
number of new cases has plateaued at about 1,000 every year.

Ms Crooks said the ready access to HIV testing and advanced treatments for those with
HIV - which could delay or even prevent the onset of AIDS - had "hugely" changed the impact
of the virus on Australia.

HIV and AIDS had gone "off the radar" as a mainstream health issue in the eyes of the
public, she said.

"That's in our microcosm, but when you look globally you haven't got to look far to
see environments where HIV is very much still out there, and where testing is limited
or unavailable or very costly and not able to be accessed," Ms Crooks said.

"Papua New Guinea has a very high rate of HIV (transmission) in comparison, and testing
is very expensive."

Australia's northern neighbour has the highest incidence of HIV in the Pacific region,
after recording its first case in 1987.

It is estimated that two per cent of PNG's adult population, about 64,000 people, are
HIV positive and this is projected to top 500,000 within 15 years.

"The good thing in Australia is we've always had free and anonymous testing," Ms Crooks said.

"When people are tested, if they find out they have HIV, the response overwhelmingly
is concern about who they might have given it to and concern to not give it to anyone
else."

AAP dr/jl/de

KEYWORD: HIV (AAP NEWSFEATURE)

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