Experts demand new AIDS campaign
Health experts have used the 20th anniversary of the Grim Reaper television campaign to warn the government that HIV cases will continue to rise without a commitment to increasing AIDS awareness among young people.
Bill Bowtell, one of the architects of the original Australian response to AIDS, lauded the successes of the last 20 years in keeping infection rates low in this country, but feared complacency.
The paradox of prevention, the more success you are, the less people see a need to do it, he said.
We may have bought ourselves 20 years, but we haven’t bought immunity; while back then the problem was in Africa, today it’s on our doorstep.
Bowtell, now director of the HIV/AIDS project at the Lowy Institute, warned that the infection rates of Papua New Guinea and the Asia Pacific region were a significant concern.
Two million Australians travel internationally every year and of course they’ll have sex and do drugs -鈥� the vector back to Australia is quite clear, he said.
It’s up to the present government and the states to see the threat that is now posed by HIV and learn from the Australian model that worked.
Bowtell said the government had discharged its responsibilities to the generation that first witnessed the AIDS epidemic yet retains the highest rate of new infections.
We can’t stop people acting riskily and it is a concern that people who should know better continue to put themselves at risk, but you can’t pass a law.
I’m more concerned with young people, who have a great sense of confidence and immortality, he said.
They don’t see HIV/AIDS in the same way we did 20 years ago, but the threat is still there -鈥� we can see there are rises in HIV rates.
Bowtell called for a new type of campaign as the media landscape had changed.
What you need now is to use YouTube, the internet, mobile phones, specialist magazines, the ways in which young people get their information now.
Ita Buttrose, former chair of the National Advisory Committee on AIDS, said young people did not have a full appreciation of what living with HIV is really like.
They think HIV isn’t a problem because they’ve got drugs these days, but there are side effects and we all react differently, she said.
The time is right to introduce a new effective education campaign based on the way we did it 20 years ago, primarily at young people both straight and gay.
A spokesperson for health minister Tony Abbott said the government was still considering the need for a $10 million AIDS awareness campaign.
Michael Nelson, co-president of the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service and long-time worker in the HIV industry, said any new campaigns needed to be responsive to community needs.
You’ve got to target gay men because that’s where the rates are, and for a targeted campaign you need community experience -鈥� Tony Abbott has a lot of experience but that’s not his forte, he said.
Only the federal government has these sorts of funds, but there has to be proper consultation within the partnership for it to work.
There does need to be a reminder, but it needs to be different; you can’t bring the image of death into HIV when people aren’t dying, Nelson said.
Paul Kidd, editor of Positive Living, feared calls for a new Grim Reaper campaign would have only a negative effect.
We’re still dealing with the stigma from that advertising campaign, he said.
Like the anti-smoking shock ads, showing the side-effects of antiretrovirals, reminding people of HIV in very graphic and terrifying ways won’t change people’s behaviour.
Kidd said an advertisement contracted by federal Department of Health would not be like the ACON and AFAO campaigns the community has been accustomed to.
Undoubtedly there’s going to be a level of consultation with the community, but its mission is going to be different from ours.
Meantime, the International AIDS Society has announced its fourth annual conference will be held in Sydney on 22-25 July, bringing HIV experts from 153 countries.
Dr David Cooper from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research said Australia’s long history of leadership in HIV/AIDS work makes it an ideal host.
