HIV&AIDS and Sexual Health Conferences 2019 Aboriginal communities

A report back on the Australasian Sexual Health and HIV&AIDS Conference 2019. 

I work across the in-patient, (midwifery) setting, in the outpatient arm of our health service providing breastfeeding support, sexual health, women's health, and refugee health services. We collaborate regularly with the Aboriginal Health Service. I bear witness to the traumatising effects of colonisation on First Nation Peoples within our region. I see this as the number one priority, and few months ago I was elected to the Swan Hill Rural City Council  

My 'bio' almost speaks to the challenges of providing sexual health care in the regions. Taking on many roles, filling gaps, but also understanding the impacts of limited services, difficulty retaining medical staff, and the tyranny of distance. 

A report back on Dr Clare Huppatz's presentation, 'WA Syphilis Epidemiology'.

At the WA syphilis symposium we heard from Dr Clare Huppatz who outlined the syphilis epidemic as it has moved through Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. We heard that women aged 20-34 were amongst those most affected in Western Australia. Similarly, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were disproportionately affected with a rate ratio for Indigenous to non-Indigenous of 14:1. We were shown lots of graphs of infectious syphilis going “up and up” and were told that this is not just due to increased awareness and testing but increased test positivity as well.