ACON has welcomed the NSW government’s announcement that it will provide $500,000 for three new HIV research studies by the National Centre of HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research.
The move comes as new figures released by NSW Health showed that HIV rates in NSW, in comparison to surges in other states, have remained stable over the past decade, with 404 new notifications of HIV in NSW in 2007.
ACON CEO Stevie Clayton said the grants will help with HIV prevention and education strategies run by ACON and other organisations such as NSW Health and Positive Life NSW.
“Sex between men continues to account for over 70 per cent of all new diagnoses, so further research … will contribute to refining education strategies to keep infection rates low,” Clayton said.
“Most importantly there has been no increase in the rate of new infections but an increase in new diagnoses which means that we are catching cases where people may have had HIV for a while.”
The grants will help fund research on gay men at risk of contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and STI prevention for Sydney’s female sex workers and indigenous Australians.
NSW Minister for Health, Reba Meagher, said that the grants build upon the $90 million given to area health services and non-government organisations in 2007-08 for HIV prevention, care and treatment.
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