By Maya Davis
When the word HIV pops into mind, many places are immediately associated with it such as, South Africa or the United States. But what about Australia? Australia has recently seen within the past years an alarming increase in numbers of HIV cases.
According to a recent BBC article, from 2000 to 2005 there was a 41% increase in HIV cases reported in Australia. Don Baxter, from the Australian Federation of Aids Organizations, states that many heterosexual men are contracting the virus from holidays spent in Southeast Asia and having unprotected sex with HIV positive women. This is still a low percentage of the HIV cases.
Within the gay community, the number of HIV infection cases is increasing. Because there is less social stigma concerning the AIDS virus, the assessment of HIV as a fatal virus has diminished; therefore, less men and women take HIV as seriously as they once might have. However, the treatment of the virus has reduced the overall effect of this illness. Geoff Honnor, from the charity People Living with HIV and AIDS, says that gay men have thus adjusted their risk assessment accordingly. However, life with HIV is not a walk in the park. The cocktail of drugs that an infected person must take comes with a host of side effects and added physical strain. Many with HIV have an increased risk of diabetes, heart attacks, cancer, life-threatening illnesses, and kidney failure, to name a few.
When related to other countries with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Australia has a low rate of infections. The growing number of cases has still worried the Australian government, which has been known to be conservative with HIV resources. It has promised to spend $10 million ($7.7 million US) on education on the virus, believing that, in the words of federal health minister Tony Abbott, “It's about getting the necessary information to people who need it the most”.
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