Key findings
- The first case of AIDS in New Zealand was notified in 1984. By the end of 1994, 473 people had been reported, giving a cumulative incidence rate of 14.1 per 100,000. The comparable Australian rate to the end 1994 was 32.1 per 100,000 population.
- The results of an anonymous unlinked seroprevalence study performed in Auckland and Christchurch STD clinics in 1991 and 1992 showed that the seroprevalence rate among men who described themselves as homosexual or bisexual was 44 per 1000, among those reported as heterosexual 1.3 per 1000 (a third of the infected men in this group reported homosexual activity at some time in the past), and among females it was 1.1 per 1000.
- In New Zealand as in Australia the epidemic of HIV infection and AIDS has predominantly affected gay men, and few people have been infected through injecting drug use. The number of men and women believed to have been infected with HIV heterosexually is relatively low.
- During 1994, 972 cases of HIV infection were newly diagnosed in Australia and exposure to HIV was initially attributed to sources other than male homosexual or bisexual contact and mother-to-child transmission for 304 (31%). Of these 304 cases included in the assessment, most (72%) were male and approximately 50% were diagnosed in New South Wales.
- Overall, 44% of these 304 cases attributed their exposure to HIV to heterosexual contact but for 41%, exposure to HIV was not reported. Males represented 85% of cases for which exposure to HIV was not reported