Talking Public Health: Ensuring “No One” Left Behind

People work­ing in the Sexu­al Health + HIV-sec­tor with Aus­trali­an rur­al and remote com­munit­ies urged to join del­eg­a­tions in Adelaide

Octo­ber 2016:  People work­ing in the Sexu­al Health + HIV-sec­tor with Aus­trali­an rur­al and remote com­munit­ies are encour­aged to join two excit­ing del­eg­a­tions, in the final lead up to the Aus­tralasi­an Sexu­al Health Con­fer­ence (Monday 14 — Wed­nes­day 16 Novem­ber 2016) held back-to-back with the Aus­tralasi­an HIV & AIDS Con­fer­ence (Wed­nes­day 16 — Fri­day 18 Novem­ber 2016) in Adelaide, Aus­tralia. This schedul­ing has cre­ated a full edu­ca­tion­al 5‑day pro­gram of high qual­ity research in our fields, and a key oppor­tun­ity to net­work + form import­ant col­lab­or­a­tions with hun­dreds of the key people work­ing in Sexu­al Health and HIV in Aus­tralasia – keep­ing you informed of who’s who and of poten­tial opportunities.

Des­pite the regis­tra­tion clos­ing date lapsed on 28 Octo­ber, late regis­tra­tions are being accep­ted right up to both events.

“We are pleased that the Aus­tralasi­an Sexu­al Health Con­fer­ence and the Aus­tralasi­an HIV & AIDS Con­fer­ence are to be held in Adelaide this Novem­ber offer­ing an excel­lent oppor­tun­ity for South Aus­trali­an health work­ers and those from our neigh­bour­ing States and Ter­rit­or­ies to exper­i­ence these closer to home,” states Prof. Paddy A Phil­lips, Chief Med­ic­al Officer & Chief Pub­lic Health Officer of South Aus­tralia Health.

“The con­fer­ences are vital for remain­ing informed on changes in the HIV and Sexu­al Health sec­tors and to net­work across the many dis­cip­lines in attendance.”

A/Prof. James Ward (Head Infec­tious Dis­eases Abori­gin­al Health, South Aus­trali­an Health and Med­ic­al Research Insti­tute, SA, Aus­tralia) fur­ther adds: “Hold­ing the con­fer­ences togeth­er in Adelaide this Novem­ber rep­res­ents a great oppor­tun­ity for rur­al and remote people in the sec­tor to attend these conferences.”

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health

As co-com­mit­tee pro­gram mem­ber of both con­fer­ences, A/Prof James Ward stresses the imper­at­ive focus on Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander Health con­tained in both con­fer­ences pro­grams that should­n’t be missed by any­one work­ing in this field and inves­ted in strength­en­ing pub­lic health outcomes.

A/Prof James Ward will present a key­note address on the Evid­ence of diver­gence in HIV rates in Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander com­munit­ies on Wed­nes­day 16 Novem­ber. This top­ic will be explored in great­er detail dur­ing a pan­el on Thursday 17 Novem­ber dis­cuss­ing the imper­at­ive of ensur­ing that Abori­gin­al people are not the 10–10-10 in the 90–90-90 health strategy tar­gets – that no one gets left behind.

This imper­at­ive under­pins vari­ous oth­er con­fer­ence pro­gram high­lights on Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander Health:

• Pro­gram High­lights: Indi­gen­ous Symposia
• Pro­gram High­lights: Clin­ic­al Sexu­al Health & Epidemiology

Photo above: A/Prof James Ward, co-com­mit­tee mem­ber of the 2016 Aus­tralasi­an Sexu­al Health + HIV&AIDS Con­fer­ences speaks of Inter­na­tion­al vir­al hep­at­it­is responses for indi­gen­ous peoples at the 10th Aus­tralasi­an Vir­al Hep­at­it­is Con­fer­ence from Septem­ber 2016

Program Highlights: Indigenous Symposia

The Indi­gen­ous Sym­po­sia held on Tues­day 15 Novem­ber from 3.30pm – 5.00pm, comprises:

• Bar­bara Nat­tabi (Seni­or Lec­turer, West­ern Aus­tralia Centre for Rur­al Health, Uni­ver­sity of West­ern Aus­tralia) speak­ing on Vari­ation in Sexu­al Health Care Deliv­ery at Primary Health Care Level in Aus­tralia: Find­ings from the Audit and Best Prac­tice for Chron­ic Dis­ease Projects
• Linda Gar­ton (Remote Sexu­al Health Pro­gram Man­ager, NT Depart­ment of Health) who will present An Inter­im Eval­u­ation of Out­break Response Effect­ive­ness to Con­trol the Syph­il­is Out­break in the North­ern Ter­rit­ory, 2014–2016
• Hon­ors Stu­dent, Daniel Difiore (South Aus­trali­an Health and Med­ic­al Research Insti­tute, SA) speak­ing onMethamphet­am­ine, sexu­al health know­ledge and atti­tudes among Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander young people: Res­ults from the GOANNA survey
• Esteemed com­munity eld­er, Gracelyn Small­wood (Pro­fess­or, James Cook Uni­ver­sity, Queens­land) who reports on the final res­ults from the STRIVE study inThe import­ance of Com­munity Devel­op­ment, “A Bot­toms Up Approach” on the com­munity responses address­ing the increased noti­fic­a­tions asso­ci­ated with the syph­il­is out­break were first repor­ted in north­w­est Queens­land in Janu­ary 2011.

Program Highlights: Clinical Sexual Health & Epidemiology

Proffered paper sessions on Clinical Sexual Health and Epidemiology on Monday 14 November at 2pm – 3.30pm, include:

• Amy Bur­roughs (Aus­trali­an Nation­al Uni­ver­sity & Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment Depart­ment of Health) who speaks on Recent Trends in Syph­il­is in Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander People and Non-Indi­gen­ous Per­sons in Aus­tralia and the noti­fic­a­tions that have increased sig­ni­fic­antly in Aus­tralia over the last ten years. This paper high­lights that dis­par­ity remains between rates in Indi­gen­ous versus non-indi­gen­ous per­sons where high rates in Indi­gen­ous women increase the risk of con­gen­it­al syphilis.
• Johanna Dups (Com­mu­nic­able Dis­ease Con­trol Dir­ect­or­ate, Depart­ment of Health West­ern Aus­tralia) who presents An Out­break of Infec­tious Syph­il­is in North­ern Aus­tralia: The Epi­demi­ology and Pub­lic Health Response. This paper out­lines the work of the Mul­tijur­is­dic­tion­al Syph­il­is Out­break Group (MJSO) of the Com­mu­nic­able Dis­eases Net­work Aus­tralia, which formed in April 2015 in response to an increase in infec­tious syph­il­is noti­fic­a­tions among young Abori­gin­al and Torres Strait Islander people in north­ern Aus­tralia. It describes the epi­demi­ology of the out­break 2011–2015, the pub­lic health response and the activ­it­ies of the MJSO.