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October, 2001The Australian Red Cross has launched a special appeal to combat the growing spread of HIV/AIDS on the Australian doorstep, in Asia. Its Secretary -General, Martine Letts, says the theme is that "by 2040 the most endangered species in Asia could be human"... with the risk that Asia within the next 10 years could surpass sub-Saharan Africa as the world's most infected HIV region. AIDS Information Services fully supports and recommends this appeal. Discover more about the work of the Australian Red Cross's role in HIV/AIDS at www.redcross.org CHANGES AND CHALLENGES - NATIONAL HIV/AIDS STRATEGY(1999-2000 TO 2003-2004 (Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care) HIV/AIDS IN AUSTRALIA : YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW Australia's experience of HIV/AIDS does, however, need to be viewed in the context of a global pandemic.
In the developing world, where the vast majority of infections occur, HIV/AIDS has begun to erode achievements in child survival and life expectancy and to threaten development gains. Some of Australia's neighbours, such as Papua New Guinea, are among the countries experiencing rapid growth in the number of new infections. As Australia's National HIV/AIDS Strategy comes into effect this situation presents enormous challenges - not only for our international aid program but also for the effectiveness of our own national response. Australia's prompt and rational actions have placed it at the forefront of best-practice population health responses to HIV/AIDS in the world, and the mobilisation of affected communities has been central to the effectiveness of our response. In addition, initiatives to protect the integrity of the blood supply and to minimise the risk of transmission through injecting drug use and unsafe sexual practices led to an early reduction in estimated HIV incidence, to around 500 a year."
Annual Surveillance Report 2001An extract from the report edited by National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical ResearchSummaryHIV/AIDSIt is estimated that 12,440 people were living with HIV infection in Australia by the end of 2000. The decline in annual AIDS incidence observed since 1994, due to the fall in HIV transmission rates a decade earlier, has been substantially accelerated over the past four years by improvements in treatment for HIV infection. Transmission of HIV in Australia continues to occur primarily through sexual contact between men. There is no evidence of recent change in rates of transmission via this route, or any increase in the very low rates of transmission through injecting drug use, or heterosexual contact. Close to half the cases attributed to heterosexual contact are now in people from countries with high HIV prevalence or their sexual partners. Around 43% of AIDS cases in 2000, up from 19% in 1996, occurred in people who had been diagnosed with HIV infection within the preceding three months, and had therefore been unable to benefit from antiretroviral therapy or prophylaxis for opportunistic infection. Survival following AIDS has substantially increased from 19.6 months for AIDS cases diagnosed in 1994 to 37.6 months among AIDS cases diagnosed in 1997. Hepatitis CHepatitis C continues to be the most frequently reported notifiable infection in Australia. During 2000, 20,926 cases were reported, bringing the total number of notified cases of hepatitis C in Australia to more than 160,000 since antibody testing became available in 1990. The number of notifications over the period 1996 - 2000 has remained relatively stable in the range 18,000 - 22,000 per year. Although there may be some duplicate reporting of hepatitis C diagnoses, it is likely that many people with hepatitis C infection remain undiagnosed."
Letters to the Editor - Age Magazine- Good Weekend - Can You Keep a SecretJournalist Julie-Anne Davies tugged at some heart strings with her moving story run in The Age magazine GOOD WEEKEND on August 25, 2001. It drew the following responses. Julie-Anne Davies' story on Australian children living with HIV ("Can
you keep a Secret?", August 25) touched my heart, and I hope through
the generosity of your readers that Camp Goodtime, which had to be cancelled
due to lack of sponsorship, will go ahead. These children, like all
HIV-positive people, need compassion, love and understanding. All the
health-care professionals and families who care for these children have
my utmost respect. I look forward to the day when they don't have to
hide their HIV status. A grateful hug for Julie-Anne Davies for lifting the veil on that extra weighty burden that HIV-positive children carry in addition to the disease itself. Keeping mum about Mum, too (or Dad, Grandma or Pa) as well as other positive people in their young lives are extra demands on them that are not often reported. Stories like this can only offer a better understanding of their plight. The Australian AIDS Fund Inc, which I founded in the mid-1980s, boasts Victoria's only counterpart to Sydney's Camp Goodtime.Camp Seaside, a residential getaway to the Mornington Peninsula held twice a year and offered to children and parents without charge, and Australia's only specific supportive accommodation (Rosehaven) for women and children living with HIV. The latest initiative is the fundraising Hope rose, now on the market.
Readers are invited to visit the Web site www.aids.net.au. In the article on children who are HIV-positive, the organisation
Very Special Kids is described as offering respite to families of children
with disabilities. In fact, Very Special Kids is devoted to improving
the quality of life for families of children with progressive life-threatening
illness. We welcome families whose children are HIV-positive, not only
for respite care but for counselling and palliative care. Seldom have I read a story that saddened me as much as "Can You Keep
a Secret?". As a nation, we probably pride ourselves on being humanitarians,
but the treatment meted out to innocent children with HIV by ignorant
members of the public is deplorable. Are we still living in the Dark
Ages, when those with leprosy, for example, were regarded as outcasts?
UNAIDS warns Asia could exceed Africa in AIDS casesSource Unwire 24 April 2001At a special session of the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, UN officials warned that the number of HIV infections in Asia over the next 10 years could surpass those of Africa unless immediate action is taken to stem the spread of the virus. Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, stated that there were 900,000 new infections last year in the Asia-Pacific region, and 490,000 people died of AIDS. In Africa, 3.9 million people were infected last year, and 2.4 million died. According to Cravero, South Asia is the fastest growing epidemic outside of sub-Saharan Africa, with an infection rate of 5 per cent. She also stated that epidemics in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and parts of India already have spread beyond sex workers and intravenous drug users to the general population. Cravero and other UN officials emphasised the pivotal roles of governments, businesses, and other sectors in helping to fight the spread of the disease at a national level while the epidemics are still in their early stages. This website especially offers itself as a key resource to Australia's school population in particular.and in that regard it carries the endorsement and backing of education authorities. It is especially invaluable to those schools which choose to support and participate in SCHOOLS AIDS DAY, inaugurated in Victoria three years ago.and now inviting the nation to join in.and being marked this year on Friday, July 20th, 2001.both as an optional dress fundraiser and as an opportunity to reflect on the shameful treatment meted out to an Australian pre-schooler, EVE VAN GRAFHORST, the first Australian child to be infected by HIV via a blood transfusion. This year's SCHOOLS AIDS DAY is being auspiced by Melbourne's Catholic Education Office. Eve's birthday is in mid-July.hence the marking of SCHOOLS AIDS DAY around that time.and her life story - brief but brave - is also carried on this website.
But its vision was never limited: it did all sorts of things and reached out to offer material support to positive people as far away as Mexico, Uganda and Thailand.as well as to other parts of Australia and being sought out by like groups for advice and support in the establishment of shelters similar to those established by The Australian AIDS Fund Inc.
To widen their knowledge and experience, it sent its House Directors to the United States and Canada, and formed a link between such services in Australia, known as ACACIA. But, while this website carries the story and the history of The Australian AIDS Fund Inc and details its services and programs along with its contact phone numbers and addresses.it does so only to keep that on the public record and as a support gesture. The AAFI story covers the period of the Founder's 16 year leadership of the organisation up until April 7th, 2001, when he stepped aside to devote his energies instead, as a concerned individual, to the ongoing life of this HIV information website; the promotion of Schools AIDS Day (which in Victoria will continue to financially benefit the AAFI); and the promotion and sale of the Hope rose throughout the world. These have been, and remain the ongoing special initiatives of the Founder alone.with The Australian AIDS Fund concentrating its efforts and its slender financial resources on maintaining its San Michel and Rosehaven supportive accommodation and respite services.
It attracted some 60,000 people.at the rate of more than one thousand every week.in the first year of its appearance on the worldwide web. All of the associated provider, design, maintenance, registration, secretarial, upkeep, data-provision and other costs related to this website continue to be solely and personally borne and met by Brian Haill. Contact details: The contact addresses for The Australian AIDS Fund, and its phone numbers, are listed in those areas on this site specially devoted to it. Those AIDS care agencies and professionals that really meet the many needs of positive people have unreservedly supported the excellence of the AAFI's services across the years. They now have a particular opportunity to get behind its push for realistic government funding. Because while the Fairfield Hospital's "Fairfield House" is a fine facility (with a fast-growing waiting list), folks have become used to regarding both San Michel and Rosehaven simply as home. That's the essential difference. They can also refer themselves directly without fuss or bother. It may be that YOU have HIV (or Hep C) or have a loved one or a friend who is infected or know of others who are having difficulty. This is where the easy-to-read information on this website is intended as a help and a guide, listing as it does the contact addresses or phone numbers of specialist agencies and services. Overall, the key objective is to draw attention to the big picture, the world scene where the virus is ravaging the fabric of whole nations and threatening to even more deeply damage those places already shattered by Third World poverty and disease. Your support for the Hope Rose is just one means you can personally identify with the positive global family. |
