Key findings
- After adjusting for reporting delay, there were 8,810 AIDS cases and 6,174 deaths following AIDS, in Australia, cumulative to 31 December 2001. The number of HIV diagnoses, adjusted for multiple reporting, was 18,854 at the end of 2001. An estimated 12,730 people were living with HIV/AIDS in Australia in 2001.
- Transmission of HIV infection in Australia continues to be mainly through sexual contact between men. A history of male homosexual contact was reported in more than 85% of cases of newly acquired HIV infection diagnosed in 1997 – 2001. HIV prevalence remains below 1% among injecting drug users, prison entrants, and among men and women with a history of heterosexual contact, both in Australia and overseas, including women with a history of sex work.
- For the first time in five years, the annual number of diagnoses of hepatitis C infection declined in 2001, to 16,734 cases. The number of diagnoses of newly acquired hepatitis C infection continued to increase from 154 in 1997 to 587 in 2001, probably because of improved monitoring.
- Chlamydia was the most frequently reported notifiable condition in Australia in 2001 with 20,107 diagnoses. The population rate of diagnosis of chlamydia increased from 74.2 per 100,000 in 1999 to 105.8 per 100,000 in 2001.
- The population rate of diagnosis of gonorrhoea and syphilis in 2001 was 33.4 and 7.1 per 100,000 population, respectively. In 2001, the number of diagnoses of donovanosis increased for the first time in the past eight years.