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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-12-02 Daily Xml
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Matters of Interest

World AIDS Day

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:22): Yesterday, 1 December, was World AIDS Day, a day which aims to raise awareness of HIV and ensure that HIV positive people live free from stigma and discrimination. As someone who grew up in the 1980s, I am well aware of the publicity that surrounded the HIV/AIDS epidemic at that time. I remember when Hollywood legend and movie star, Rock Hudson, announced that he had AIDS. That was when I, my schoolmates, and many people around the world first learned about AIDS.

It was an even bigger shock when less than four months later Hudson died of the disease. I also remember the media coverage of Hudson's announcement and subsequent death. The daily images of Hudson looking very pale in a wheelchair and the revelation that he was in a homosexual relationship for years gave the misconception that both HIV and AIDS are life-threatening conditions associated with death—very quick death—and HIV is associated with behaviours that even today many people disapprove of such as homosexuality.

More recently, HIV has again had increased media coverage due to Charlie Sheen's announcement that he is HIV positive. Again, the media has focused on Sheen's supposedly bad behaviour and not the disease itself. It saddened me that there were many misconceptions about HIV and AIDS when I first learned about it in the eighties. It saddens me even more that there are still misconceptions about the disease and that HIV positive people still face stigma and discrimination.

Recently, I represented the Hon. Jack Snelling, the Minister for Health, at 'Nothing about us without us,' an event held by Relationships Australia which focused on the stigma and discrimination that people who are HIV positive face. I have learnt a great deal from the keynote speaker, Dr Lydia Mungherera. Dr Lydia Mungherera is an extraordinary advocate for people living positively with HIV. She herself breaks the stereotype that many believe is a typical HIV positive person. As a doctor from a wealthy family many would not think that Dr Lydia is HIV positive. She and others demonstrate that there is no typical HIV positive person—after all, HIV does not discriminate.

The World Health Organisation cites fear of stigma and discrimination as the main reasons people are reluctant to get tested, disclose their HIV status and take antiretroviral drugs. This fact alone should be reason enough for the community to tackle this issue. An unwillingness to take an HIV test means that more people are diagnosed late when the virus may have already progressed to AIDS. This makes treatment less effective, increasing the likelihood of transmitting HIV to others and causing early death.

Despite Australia's response to HIV, Australia and the world continue to be challenged by new HIV infections. At the end of 2014 in Australia, around 27,150 people were living with HIV. In the most recent annual surveillance report for South Australia there were 55 new notifications of HIV in 2014. The South Australian government is working with non-government sector organisations, including Relationships Australia South Australia, to provide programs and services that target South Australians who are at the highest risk of HIV and blood-borne virus infections.

These programs and services assist people with HIV to live a normal life and also help to break the community's negative perceptions of this disease. By breaking these perceptions people will be empowered to get tested, disclose and get treatment. An extract from a HIV positive woman in Vietnam shows the severe impact that misconceptions can have. She said:

I am afraid of giving my disease to my family members, especially my youngest brother who is so small…I don't hold him in my arms now.

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