HIV: Let’s Talk About It
A speech given at the Victorian Parliamentary World AIDS Day event
December 1st, 2006

At the first international meeting I went to about HIV, a young woman from South Africa told me about how she had become infected with HIV. In her soft, shy voice she said that she had been 16; it was her first time having sex. She had become pregnant that first time, and when her son was born she was told that both she and her baby were HIV positive. Although she was 25 when she told me this story, she had still only had sex that one time in her life, and the legacy of that single sexual act was a lifetime of HIV for her and her new baby.

It is horrifying, but in 2006 around the world, this is becoming a common story. International figures tell us that HIV is increasingly becoming a disease of young, heterosexual people

In Victoria, I think we are more used to the idea that HIV is a disease of people like me: middle-aged gay men. We think this because in recent years, most Victorians who have been diagnosed with HIV have been gay men in their 30s and 40s. I think for most Victorians, it is more comfortable to think that HIV won’t ever affect them, and they don’t worry about the possibility that they will ever become infected

But though we middle-aged gay men make up the majority, we aren’t the only people being diagnosed with HIV in Victoria these days. In the last three years, more than 750 Victorians have been diagnosed: we have one of the fastest growing epidemics in the country. More than 100 of those diagnosed have been young people, people under 30. And eight of those diagnosed in the last three years have been teenagers, like my South African friend, left with the legacy of a lifetime of HIV from their first sexual experiences. The figures are a grim reminder to us that although we often feel comfortably protected from the HIV epidemic raging in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, the reality is that HIV is here in Victoria, even in our kids bedrooms. And it’s not just HIV: in the first six months of this year, more than 5000 Victorians were infected with Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection that can lead to sterility in women. Half of those infected with chlamydia were under 25; half of the women diagnosed were under 22

This week I have been reading a lot about young people, so that I could be ready to talk today. I have been particularly disturbed by the most recent survey of Secondary Students and Sexual Health, a national survey conducted by my colleagues at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society. The most frightening sentence I read was: “Consistent with their greater likelihood for having multiple sexual partners and having sex with people not known to them before sex, young men in year 10 were most likely not to have used a condom because the sex was unplanned”.

I was frightened because the easiest and most effective way to prevent the diseases that I have talked about, HIV and Chlamydia, is to use a condom, and our kids are not getting that message clearly enough.

The survey reports that one quarter of year ten students and almost half of year 12 students had experienced vaginal intercourse, and that the proportion of teens who were sexually active had consistently increased since previous surveys. I was glad to read that some of this sexual activity is protected by the use of condoms, but 12% of year 10s and 33% of year 12s had experienced vaginal intercourse without a condom. Although most students had correct information about HIV risk, one in five year ten students and one in ten year 12 students still thought that HIV only infects gay men and injecting drug users. Fewer students had correct information about HIV in the most recent survey than in previous surveys, and despite how common Chlamydia infection is among young people, less than a quarter of students in the survey understood about their risk of infection with this and other sexually transmitted infections – only 6% of them thought that they were likely to become infected with an STI or HIV.

We have clearly dropped the ball when it comes to giving our kids the knowledge and skills they need to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases. It is easy to blame others for this failure – the government, or schools, or the health system – but really we are all to blame for not preparing young people for the risks that they face as they move into sexual adulthood.

It is a sad fact that 60% of young men and more than half of young women in the schools survey were not confident about talking to their parents about HIV or sexually transmitted infections. If we want to see dramatic drops in the number of young Victorians who are being infected with HIV or Chlamydia or any other sexually transmitted diseases, then we all have to take responsibility for making sure that our own knowledge is up-to-date, and that we are ready to talk to our kids about it. Remember one simple message: using condoms prevents HIV and most other sexually transmitted infections. Take courage from this year’s World AIDS Day theme: HIV – Let’s talk about it. Don’t make your first conversation with your kids the one my parents had to have with me; the one where they tell you that they’ve been infected.

Thank you for listening.