NZAF Executive Director Shaun Robinson A drop of 12% over three years in the numbers of new locally-contracted HIV infections was welcomed by the NZ AIDS Foundation's board this afternoon and was wryly contrasted with results in Australia and further afield. Across the Tasman health authorities, who have for many years pursued a very different prevention philosophy than New Zealand, have seen a 19% increase in new infections over the same period. Like New Zealand, Australia's core of the HIV epidemic is men who have sex with men. While global health authorities are proclaiming significant reductions in the epidemic amongst heterosexuals the rate of infection amongst men who have sex with men is relentlessly rising around the world. Responding to questions from the floor, NZAF Executive Director Shaun Robinson this afternoon told the Foundation's AGM he is at a loss to understand why the various HIV organisations in Australia were not learning from New Zealand's successful prevention model. He also kept up his criticism of the global UNAIDS organisation which he has said is failing men who have sex with men. "UNAIDS has dropped the ball on msm," he said, "and it does not help that globally HIV has somewhat been captured by academics and clinicians." He suggested that dissenting voices at the ground level of the sub-epidemics could too easily be cowed by nit-picking clinical experts in the field. Robinson says the result has been to "take the power away from communities" to create their own more successful solutions to the HIV epidemic. The NZAF today reported that the numbers of HIV tests it conducts is at an all time high and that it provides counseling and support to over 200 HIV-affected clients per month. It reports that its social marketing campaign and Love Your Condom brand have been very well received, leading to a high proportion of at-risk men taking on board "our sex- and condom-positive messages." Robinson this afternoon paid tribute to the NZAF's staff who, he says, are highly effective in their work. To mark World AIDS Day, December 1st, GayNZ.com will this weekend publish an exclusive interview with UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director of Programme, Dr. Luiz Loures in Geneva, in which he responds to some of the NZAF's criticisms.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 23rd November 2013 - 11:03pm