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SYDNEY,
Australia — New HIV cases in Australia surged more
than 40 percent from 2000 to 2005, according to study
results released Thursday, prompting fears that drug
treatment advances are making people lax about practicing
safe sex.
The
annual survey report, issued by the National Center
in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, found that
new HIV infections reported in Australia rose from 656
in 2000 to 930 in 2005 -- a 41 percent leap. HIV is
the virus that causes AIDS.
Gay
men accounted for about 70 percent of the new cases.
Heterosexuals made up 19 percent, while intravenous
drug users and unknown transmission paths accounted
for the rest.
According
to the report, new infections hit an all-time high of
about 1,700 in 1984, then declined steadily through
the late 1990s. But in 2000, the trend apparently reversed.
It's
not just HIV that is on the rise in Australia.
Around
41,300 new cases of the sexually transmitted disease
chlamydia were reported in 2005, a fourfold increase
over 1995.
New
gonorrhea cases have almost doubled in the past decade,
the study said.
"It's
very possible that people are just not prioritizing
safe sex as they maybe used to in the very serious HIV/AIDS
era" of the late 1980s and early 90s, said the
center's deputy director, John Kaldor.
"It
might be here that improvements in HIV treatments have
lessened the motivation for people to protect themselves
sexually," Kaldor said.
Australia
has about 15,000 people living with HIV, and around
70 percent are being treated with life-prolonging anti-retroviral
drugs, the study found.
Don
Baxter, executive director of the Australia Federation
of AIDS Organizations, said widespread use of the drugs
-- which have been found to slow the progression of
HIV to AIDS -- could be a factor behind the recent rise,
especially among gay men.
"The
place of HIV in gay men's lives has receded enormously
from where it was, because they and their friends have
stopped dying," he said "So the level of attention
to it is much reduced."
He
said so-called "treatment optimism" could
make some people more likely to take risks, or "at
least rationalize having unprotected sex."
Australia
had 22,361 reported cases of HIV as of the end of 2005.
A further 9,872 people have been diagnosed with full-blown
AIDS, and around 6,700 have died from AIDS, the report
said.
The
National Center in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research,
an independent medical research institution, collaborates
with the government on setting strategy to combat the
spread of AIDS.
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