New Study highlights need for ongoing education campaigns.

The National Association for People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) says that the Facts and Figures: 2000 Male Out Survey released by the National Centre in HIV Social Research (NCHSR [1]National Centre in HIV Social Research. Located at the University of NSW in Sydney, NCHSR conducts research which describes and analyses the social understandings, meanings and practices of peoples, institutions and communities in relation to HIV, Hepatitis C and other communicable diseases.) showed that attitudes towards HIV positive people continued to be a very real issue in the community.

“The survey clearly reveals that over 80% of its respondents would always avoid (61.7%) or sometimes avoid (19.2%) having sex with people who they think are HIV positive, “ said NAPWA president Peter Canavan.

“We also need to deal with the vexed area of status disclosure since it is an issue which is tending to reveal countervailing patterns. On the one hand we know that most of the surveys participants expect HIV positive men to disclose their HIV status before sex but on the other hand a large percentage of those men also state strongly that they avoided having sex with HIV positive men.”

“In such an environment it would appear that there is very little motivation for HIV positive men to disclose their status at all. It’s clear that these developments need to be taken on board in if future preventative education campaigns are to be effective.”

“NAPWA strongly believes that issues like disclosure and their relevance to community education campaigns quite necessarily depend on good qualitative social research. Changes in gay male sexual behaviour have been successfully analysed and documented over the years by organisations such as the National Centre in HIV Social Research (NCHSR). Major studies such as the Male Out Survey conducted every four years are the only way we can truly get a picture of what changes are happening in the gay male community.”

“NAPWA is most concerned that at a time when figures are indicating that gay male attitudes toward unprotected sex are undergoing significant change, research funding levels continue to remain precariously fragile. Education and prevention for new generations of gay men cannot be effective unless they are predicated on a solid foundation of politically committed and adequately funded research, “ Canavan said.

For further information and all media enquiries please contact:

Peter Canavan
NAPWA President
0412 274 208

John Rule,
NAPWA National Policy Officer
(02) 9281 2511