Calls for new approach to slow spread of HIV virus among women in NT

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Health authorities in the Northern Territory are concerned about a spike in HIV diagnoses. The rate of infection among men is declining, but it's not happening as fast for women - leading to calls for a new approach to slow the spread of the virus.

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00:00The first question I asked was, will I see my daughter grow up?

00:07And the answer was, we can't guarantee you ten years.

00:11It was 1998 and Del Batten was working, running around after her four-year-old daughter and

00:16beginning her IVF journey.

00:18They came back and said, you have tested positive for HIV and I went, sort of, wow.

00:28She'd been sick a year prior and her doctor had neglected a simple blood test.

00:33Why would he?

00:34I was happily married, I had a four-year-old daughter.

00:37I was trying to have a second child.

00:41It was the pandemic before COVID, an illness shrouded in stigma that attacked the body's

00:46immune system.

00:48As the illness spread, so did the stigma, labelled a gay disease.

00:53With modern medication, HIV becomes untransmissible and is no longer a death sentence, but the

00:59stigma lives on.

01:00The bottom line is, anybody can be infected.

01:06Since 2019, over half of women diagnosed in the Northern Territory and Western Australia

01:11were diagnosed late.

01:13Among men, we see high regular testing or routine testing around gay and bisexual men,

01:19whereas for women, while testing is through antenatal screening, we also really need to

01:23see an increase in routine screenings.

01:26Around the country, cases in gay and bisexual men have plummeted by 63% over ten years.

01:33For women, there's only been a 6% decrease.

01:37Despite this shocking statistic, women were removed as a priority population under the

01:43National HIV Strategy, instead delegated to all people living with HIV.

01:50Diagnosed over 20 years ago, Jane Costello runs a support organisation for people living

01:55with HIV in New South Wales.

01:58Most women are simply amazed to discover there's another woman living with HIV in all of Australia.

02:05In her women's support groups, they discuss issues like dating, pregnancy and menopause.

02:11Just to find somebody who understands what it means for them to be living with HIV, somebody

02:16who's been through those similar experiences, is really, really critical.

02:22But even those larger organisations are fighting for funding.

02:26And many women in regional Australia complain they're being left behind.

02:30It's really difficult to get the funding, and it's a vicious circle.

02:36So long as none of us talk about it, because we fear the stigma, they then say, well, how

02:43many women do you need to support?

02:45Jane and Del are calling for a new approach.

02:48I think if we normalise testing, we will make this just seem like a routine part of healthcare.

02:54And for recently diagnosed women to know, an HIV diagnosis isn't the end of the line.

03:02You won't believe this, but at the moment all you can see is HIV.

03:10Eventually it will shrink, and it will be just part of your life.

03:15That is what happens eventually, but it is always there.

03:19It's just as in arms, in the struggle against stigma.

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