December, 2002

Local & International Warnings - Hep C infections in Australia jump – urgent funding needed

The Australian Hepatitis Council (Oct 6) has accused State and Federal governments of ignoring the growing health problems associated with Hepatitis C.

A new study claims there are 16,000 new cases of the disease each year,or one new infection every 32 minutes.The report found the number of people being infected each year jumped by 45 percent in 2001 compared to 11,000 in 1997.

Council Executive Officer Jack Wallace has appealed for more research and resources to counter the upward surge.

It’s been estimated that between 320,000 and 836,000 people in Australia would … not could … be living with the infection by 2020 depending on the degree of injecting drug use.

The Australian AIDS Fund has already called for a separation in the composite funding given to HIV/AIDS & Hepatitis C ... it’s grossly and unjustifiably lopsided with little regard to the plight of the Hep C infected.

Even though the trauma both share is so similar.

In Victoria especially,the amount given to Hepatitis C is quite pitiful compared to the millions provided to the State’s AIDS Council.

This situation has to be reversed,and quickly.

You could write to your local State and federal MP in this regard.

Political clout has to give way to real needs rather than continuing to feed burgeoning bureaucracies.)

The following is intended as a guide for those who want to send letters.

Ms Bronwyn Pike, MP.,
Victorian Health Minister,
C/- Parliament House,
Spring Street,Melbourne,.

Dear Ms Pike,

Like most Australians, I empathise with the plight of those struggling to live with HIV/AIDS and do what I can to support them on a personal basis.

However,I am becoming increasingly concerned at the skyrocketing infection rate of those people becoming infected with Hepatitis C ... now over 16,000 per year in Australia compared with some 450 per year being infected with HIV … and yet with both groups sharing so much common trauma and distress.

I understand that Australia’s HIV And Hep C research and care programs are funded as a composite program.

The time has come to stop this twinning ... those with Hep C are vastly outstripping those with HIV … by over 30 to one ... and yet are simply being virtually left for dead where the money’s concerned.

People living with Hep C in Victoria need to be provided with meaningful funding … and having regard to the fact that the Victorian AIDS Council is given so much ... millions of dollars ... why, conversely, do the Hep C groups have to do so very much on so very little?

The real irony is that those dedicated few at the cliff face who are really caring for people with HIV are doing it on a pittance … with a handful of staff, while those getting the lion’s share are living in a different world altogether.

It’s time to stop marginalising the majority of the infected.

Every small AIDS care agency in Victoria wants to see fairer funding that’s not based on political clout … and for that matter,so does everyone else!

Yours sincerely,

Oral Sex

The risk of contracting HIV from oral sex is now claimed to be greater than previously thought.

Public Health officials in England have reported that instead of a handful of cases a year in the UK of HIV being transmitted in this way, the number has jumped from between 30 and 50 a year

Spermicide

A London report warns that a common spermicide gel which had previously been regarded as a preventative agent against HIV infection is ineffective. Nonoxynol-9 use is now seen to be liable to increase the possibility of HIV transmission with frequent use increasing a woman’s risk of HIV infection by causing lesions.

Latest Global Figures

The overwhelming scale of the global HIV pandemic was highlighted at the 14th International AIDS Conference held in Barcelona, Spain, in July.

In the Asia-Pacific region, an estimated 6.6 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2001, including one million adults and children newly infected in 2001. India was the country most affected by HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region, with 3.97 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 2001. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst affected region in the world.In 2001, an estimated 3.5 million people were newly infected and 2.2 million people died following AIDS. An estimated 28.5 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2001 and 11 million children had been orphaned, due to HIV/AIDS.

In a cumulative profile to March 31, 2002, the HIV Epidemic in Australia reveal:

HIV Infection	21,925
AIDS	8,807
Deaths	6,166