Key findings
- Australians are often heard claiming that “we have the best HIV/AIDS response in the world” or words to that effect. While one could debate the basis for this conclusion, there is little doubt that Australia has achieved much with its series of HIV/AIDS strategies, and that many aspects of our model have been influential in other countries.
- A central challenge in setting up any national activity in Australia is the federal system of government. In public health, the States and Territories have primary responsibility for service provision, while the Commonwealth provides funding and strategic coordination. When AIDS appeared in the early 1980s, national surveillance structures in the area of communicable diseases were not strong.
- The designation in 1986 of the NHMRC Special Unit in AIDS Epidemiology and Clinical Research, which was to become the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR) in 1990, provided a formal national focus for surveillance, but was only a starting point because the States and Territories, while supportive, were not formally committed to working with the new centre.
- It was not until 1989, when the National HIV Surveillance Committee was formed, with all jurisdictions represented, that nationally consistent procedures for HIV surveillance started to be adopted.
- Another particularly Australian innovation in HIV surveillance has been the monitoring at a national level of newly acquired infection. Despite some confusion, among some users of the data, between new infections and new diagnoses, the collection of this information has confirmed that transmission has continued to occur.