‘Unique on a global scale’: NSW nears elimination of HIV as cases fall to record lows | lucy_carroll marywardy
NSW reported its lowest number of new HIV infections on record last year with the goal of elimination of the virus in the state now “well within reach by 2025”.
“What we are seeing in NSW is unique on a global scale,” Professor Andrew Grulich, head HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Program at the UNSW Kirby Institute, said. “The world is watching what NSW is doing. The decline is definitely real, but it has been accelerated by COVID-19 restrictions.” NSW’s latest HIV Strategy report shows testing for HIV was 12 per cent lower last year than during 2019, but rates increased in the last quarter of the year as the state exited lockdown.There were 541,800 HIV serology tests in the state in 2021, similar to the 547,287 recorded in 2020.
The aim of the HIV Strategy 2021-2025 is the virtual elimination of transmission by reducing preventable infections by 90 per cent, starting people on treatment soon after diagnosis and reducing stigma and discrimination as a barrier to prevention and treatment. “What we’re seeing is essentially the extension of the downward trend. Men who are HIV negative are still accessing PrEP and testing rates are now moving back to where they should be. The important thing is that fewer infections are newly acquired.”Ruan Uys, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2016, said despite the initial shame and stigma when he was diagnosed, ultimately it was peer connection that saved his life.
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