NEWS BRIEFING: STIs still rising, but there’s hope for killer hep C

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2015-09-14 01:00

Australia; NSW

NEWS BRIEFING – Fri Sep 11 at 11:00 AEST online The latest stats from the UNSW Kirby Institute’s annual surveillance report once again paint a mixed picture of Australians’ sexual health. The report, which is one of two national surveillance studies to be released at the World STI & HIV Congress 2015 in Brisbane on Monday, contains some worrying news: HIV diagnoses remain high, syphilis and gonorrhoea continue to climb on the back of record syphilis rates reported last year, chlamydia remains a major issue, particularly for the young, and STIs continue to affect Indigenous Australians disproportionately. However, there is some good news. The report’s authors say new treatments have the potential to reverse death rates from hepatitis C, which have more than doubled in a decade. Join us for this online briefing, when leading Australian sexual health experts will discuss the reports, the trends in behaviour behind it and the implications of both, ahead of the research being presented at the upcoming World STI & HIV Congress 2015.

Media release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

The briefing will discuss the following issues:

· The state of Australia’s sexual health

· The behaviours that lie behind the trends (outlined in the second national report – Annual report of trends in behaviour, 2015)

· Hope for hepatitis C

· New research to be launched at the World STI & HIV Congress 2015 in Brisbane

SPEAKERS:

· Associate Professor Rebecca Guy is Head of the Surveillance Evaluation and Research Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW

· Professor John de Wit is Director, Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW

· Professor Basil Donovan is Head of the Sexual Health Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW

DATE: Fri Sep 11
START TIME: 11:00 AEST
DURATION: Approx 45 min

A recording will be posted here as soon as possible after the event.

For further information, please contact the AusSMC on 08 7120 8666 or email info@smc.org.au.

NB: The AusSMC generally runs two different types of media briefings:
NEWS BRIEFINGS – Where new research or data will be released as part of the briefing
BACKGROUND BRIEFINGS – Where experts discuss an issue which is in the news or an issue we consider newsworthy, but no new research or data is being released

Attachments

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Media Release The University of New South Wales DOCX , 861.1 KB

Other Australian Science Media Centre, Web page Link to briefing recording

Journal/
conference: World STI & HIV Congress 2015

Organisation/s: The University of New South Wales

Funder:

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