A message from Burnet Director and CEO, Professor Brendan Crabb AC , on World AIDS Day 2024.
Today we reflect on how far we have come in our fight against HIV while remembering those whom we have lost over the last four decades.
Through strong and resilient community leadership and long-standing partnerships between community, government and research, Australia has made great strides towards our goal of eliminating HIV transmission.
HIV notifications have dropped by a third over the past decade, and ready access to treatment means people living with HIV can enjoy quality of life comparable to other Australians. Burnet Institute is proud to have been at the forefront of the HIV response in Australia through public health and laboratory-based research and advocacy.
Despite these achievements, gaps in our HIV response remain. A rebound in HIV notifications in 2023, while somewhat expected as we see returns to pre-COVID migration levels, reminds us that we must remain steadfast in our efforts to ensure equitable access to testing, prevention and treatment for all those at risk of HIV.
Burnet's surveillance program has highlighted that rates of HIV testing have not recovered to pre-COVID levels, indicating the considerable and sustained disruption COVID-19 has had on engagement with health care and HIV testing.
It's been 10 years since pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) first became available in Australia through early demonstration studies, and over this decade we've seen remarkable uptake of PrEP among gay and bisexual men, underscored by the collective efforts of community, researchers and health practitioners. However, not all people at risk of HIV are reaping the benefits of PrEP equally.
Despite substantial declines in HIV among gay and bisexual men living in urban areas, similar declines have not been observed in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, overseas-born gay and bisexual men, heterosexual people and people living in regional areas. With the tools to end HIV as a public health threat now available, and significant investment in the HIV response through the HIV taskforce, equity must be at the centre of our renewed efforts to achieve elimination of HIV transmission.
Across the Pacific region, HIV stigmatisation and social marginalisation of affected communities is driving HIV epidemics. Burnet is working to establish and maintain strong partnerships with health authorities, multi-sectorial stakeholders and communities across the Pacific, to strengthen resilience to infectious disease, with a focus on triple elimination of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B. New and exciting developments in long-acting injectable PrEP could be a game-changer for HIV prevention in the Asia-Pacific region, as long as access is equitable.
Forty years of HIV have shown that working closely with affected communities must be at the centre of our response to fully realise the potential of scientific advances in prevention and treatment. We must remember this as we renew and refocus our efforts to work with communities who have been left behind in the HIV response and address increasing HIV epidemics across our region.
Brendan Crabb AC
Burnet Institute Director and CEO
