Key findings
- Central Australia has among the highest rates of sexually transmissible diseases (STDs) in Australia and indeed the world (National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System 1990 – 1995, State/Territory Health Department reports). Chlamydia, donovanosis, gonorrhoea and syphilis are common infections.
- To date, there has been no known transmission of HIV infection among Aboriginal people in central Australia.
- Health services in central Australia have had limited success in reducing STD incidence over the last ten years.
- A meeting of the Australian health ministers in 1990 recognised the need to address these difficulties. As a result the Tri-State STD/HIV Project (TSP) was created. It is a pilot project jointly financed by the governments of the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and the Commonwealth, with a funding commitment to mid-1996. Its brief is to support existing health services to develop and implement coordinated programs to reduce STD rates and prevent HIV transmission in the region.