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CANBERRA - The federal government is considering a plan for a new A$10 ($11.22) million safe sex campaign to combat a big spike in HIV infections in Australia.
A ministerial taskforce, headed by former federal health minister Michael Wooldridge, has recommended the government spend A$10 million over four years on the sexual health campaign.
The taskforce's plan has been spurred by figures showing the number of HIV infections in Australia increased by 41 per cent between 2000 and 2005.
Health Minister Tony Abbott, who has received the committee's recommendations, said the campaign would target gay men.
"It seems that the people susceptible to HIV infection are male homosexuals, so what the committee is recommending is a new national ... to try to ensure that people don't do the sorts of things which might lead to HIV infection, or certainly don't do them without taking appropriate safety precautions," he told ABC radio.
Mr Abbott said he would commission research to find out why the safe sex message which began with the Grim Reaper advertisements 18 years ago was not getting through.
"The Wooldridge committee speculates that in a sense we might be a victim of our own success because we now have these anti-viral drugs which are much more effective at preventing the progression of HIV," he said.
"This is speculation. Let's, as far as is humanly possible, try to get down to the nitty gritty of why this is happening and get this campaign going in as carefully targeted a way as possible."
While the government was yet to decide on the form of the campaign, the minister said it was a sensible approach.
"It's a very expensive disease and if we can spend A$10 million or thereabouts and help prevent a couple of hundred people a year from coming down with HIV, that would be a very good investment," Mr Abbott said.
- AAP
