Overview

In Australia, HIV notifications have been on the rise for the past decade. HIV is also a growing concern across the Asia and Pacific region and 34 million adults and children are living with HIV across the world.

The HIV group conducts innovative research aimed at understanding the transmission and prevention of HIV with a particular focus on those populations most at risk, such as young people and men who have sex with men.

Objectives

• Undertaking research involving the groups most at risk and vulnerable to HIV, including men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, young people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities
• Integrating findings from our surveillance, epidemiology and research work to inform policy and practice to prevent HIV transmission

Highlights

• The FaceSpace Project explored the use of social networking sites to deliver health promotion messages about sexual health and safer sex to young people and men who have sex with men. The men who have sex with men arm of the study used an online interactive video narrative to follow the lives of five fictional gay men, addressing such issues as misconceptions about HIV, and the consequences of unsafe sex. The YouTube based series, with user interaction hosted on Facebook, is now in its fourth season. Management of the initiative has now been handed over to the Victorian AIDS Council as is an ongoing integral part of their health promotion approach
• Suck It and See – This innovative study was the first community-recruited study in Australia to collect biological specimens for HIV testing and examine factors associated with undiagnosed HIV infection. The study has offered valuable insights into the potential drivers of HIV transmission in Australia and provided the foundation for new approaches to understanding HIV epidemiology in Australia

Projects

• Assessment of risk practices and infectious disease among drug users in Temeke District, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
  This consultancy for Médecins du Monde - France accessed the results of a rapid assessment and response (RAR) of people who use drugs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
• AusAID's Australian Development Research Awards
  This research explored the sexual networks of men who have sex with both men and women in Vientiane, Lao PDR and Hanoi, Vietnam
• Big Day Out studies: Sex, Drugs, and Rock'n'Roll
  Since 2005, we have surveyed nearly 10,000 young people at the Big Day Out music festivals. We collect data on risk behaviours including sexual behaviour, drug use and alcohol.
• Call Centre Impact Assessment for Marie Stopes International
  The development and implementation of a call centre impact assessment framework and the testing of this framework at Marie Stopes International call centre in Mexico City.
• CREIDU - Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use
  Improving the health of people who inject drugs through research that generates new evidence and informs public health policy and practice.
• e-TEST: Enhancing STI/HIV testing in high-risk gay men
  eTEST is an intervention and surveillance system that aims to increase STI/HIV testing among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.
• Evaluation of condom distribution trial in Victorian prisons
  The evaluation of a pilot program introducing condoms and dental dams into Victorian Prisons.
• FaceSpace: Using social networking to promote safer sex to higher risk groups
  This research project aims to use social networking sites to deliver health promotion messages about sexual health and safer sex to young people and men who have sex with men (MSM).
• HIV Prevention Initiatives Evaluation
  An initiative to reduce HIV/STI risk behaviours as well as increasing health seeking behaviours among homosexually active gay men.
• HIV/AIDS Passive Surveillance
  Carries out surveillance for HIV and AIDS in Victoria.
• Monitoring HIV, risk behaviour and health service utilisation among prisoners and ex-prisoners in Fiji
  This research will provide the first ever estimate of HIV and syphilis prevalence among a representative sample of prisoners in Fiji and examine health risks, status and service utilisation post-release.
• Review of clinical and health promotion services for sex workers within Western Australia
  A review of programs, including sexual health promotion programs and clinical services, aimed at the prevention and control of HIV, STIs and blood borne viruses among sex workers in WA.
• S5: SMS for safer sex and sun safety
  SMS and MMS (text and picture mobile phone messages) were sent to young people to promote safe sex and sun safety
• Sexual health diaries
  A study comparing the use of paper, online and SMS based sexual health diaries
• SMS for sexual health promotion
  From 2006-2009, we conducted a series of world-first studies to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of using mobile phone text messages in sexual health promotion.
• Suck it And See....
  The ‘Suck it and See’ study was conducted in Melbourne in the middle of 2008 to see what percentage of gay men have HIV and to better understand the spread of HIV. The study was conducted at a number of gay venues including gay bars/clubs, gay sex-on-premises venues (SOPV) and gay men’s health clinics.
• The Australian Collaboration for Chlamydia Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance (ACCESS)
  ACCESS involves six separate chlamydia sentinel surveillance networks that provide important and unique information on testing uptake and prevalence of chlamydia infection in a range of priority populations.
• The Victorian Primary Care Network for Sentinel Surveillance on BBVs and STIs
  The Victorian Primary Care Network for Sentinel Surveillance of BBVs and STIs (VPCNSS) commenced operation in April 2006.