page_title: HIV/AIDS in Australia
hierarchical_section_title: HIV/AIDS in Australia
caption_attribution_description: English: Graph from data at http://www.avert.org/australia-hiv-aids-statistics.htm
context_page_description: The history of HIV/AIDS in Australia is distinctive, as Australian government bodies recognised and responded to the AIDS pandemic relatively swiftly, with the implementation of effective disease prevention and public health programs, such as needle and syringe programs. As a result, despite significant numbers of at-risk group members contracting the virus in the early period following its discovery, the country achieved and has maintained a low rate of HIV infection in comparison to the rest of the world.
  At the end of 2017, 27 545 people were estimated to be living with HIV in Australia. 20 922 infections were attributable to male‐to‐male sex exposure, 6 245 to heterosexual sex, 605 to injecting drug use, and 168 to ‘other’ exposures. AIDS is no longer considered an epidemic or a public health issue in Australia, due to the success of anti-retroviral drugs and extremely low HIV-to-AIDS progression rates.
  The first recorded case of HIV/AIDS in Australia was in Sydney in October 1982, and the first Australian death from AIDS occurred in Melbourne in July 1983.
context_section_description: The history of HIV/AIDS in Australia is distinctive, as Australian government bodies recognised and responded to the AIDS pandemic relatively swiftly, with the implementation of effective disease prevention and public health programs, such as needle and syringe programs (NSPs). As a result, despite significant numbers of at-risk group members contracting the virus in the early period following its discovery, the country achieved and has maintained a low rate of HIV infection in comparison to the rest of the world.
  
  At the end of 2017, 27 545 people were estimated to be living with HIV in Australia. 20 922 infections were attributable to male‐to‐male sex exposure, 6 245 to heterosexual sex, 605 to injecting drug use, and 168 to ‘other’ exposures (vertical transmission to newborn, blood/tissue recipient, healthcare setting, haemophilia/coagulation disorder). AIDS is no longer considered an epidemic or a public health issue in Australia, due to the success of anti-retroviral drugs and extremely low HIV-to-AIDS progression rates.
  The first recorded case of HIV/AIDS in Australia was in Sydney in October 1982, and the first Australian death from AIDS occurred in Melbourne in July 1983.
  Spurred to action both by the emergence of the disease amongst their social networks and by public hysteria and vilification, gay, lesbian, drug user and sex worker communities and organisations were instrumental in the rapid creation of AIDS councils (though their names varied), sex worker organisations, drug user organisations and positive people's groups. The AIDS councils were formed in South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia in 1983, and in New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory in 1985. The state and territory AIDS councils, along with the other national peak organisations representing at-risk groups Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL), National Association of People with HIV Australia (NAPWHA), Anwernekenhe National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HIV/AIDS Alliance (ANA), the Scarlet Alliance, and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, all contribute to Australia's response to HIV.
  Non-governmental organisations formed swiftly and have remained prominent in addressing AIDS in Australia. The most notable include the AIDS Trust of Australia, formed in 1987, The Victorian AIDS Council (VAC), formed in July 1983, and the Bobby Goldsmith Foundation, founded in mid 1984. The Bobby Goldsmith Foundation is one of Australia's oldest HIV/AIDS charities. The Foundation is named in honour of Bobby Goldsmith, one of Australia's early victims of the disease, who was an athlete and active gay community member, who won 17 medals in swimming at the first Gay Olympics, in San Francisco in 1982. The Foundation had its origins in a network of friends who organised care for Goldsmith to allow him to live independently during his illness, until his death in June 1984. This approach to supporting care and independent living in the community is the basis of the Foundation's work, but is also an approach reflected in the activities and priorities of many HIV/AIDS organisations in Australia.
  In 1985, Eve van Grafhorst was ostracised since she had contracted HIV/AIDS caused by a transfusion of infected blood. The family moved to New Zealand where she died at the age of 11.
caption: Estimated AIDS diagnoses by year in Australia from data at avert.org
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