Let’s Celebrate Safer Sex this National Condom Day (SHINE SA Media Release)

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SHINE SA, 11 February 2020

Forget Valentine’s Day, there’s a new romantic day occupying February 14: National Condom Day! With only 36% of young South Australians always using a condom during casual sex, it’s no surprise that STI rates are on the rise. Like an elusive Valentine’s partner, many STIs are hidden. Around 70% of people with chlamydia have no symptoms, going unnoticed while being transmitted to others.

So what could be more romantic than preventing the unintended consequences of unprotected sex? Show some romance by taking advantage of how easy it is to get your hands on a condom. Condoms are widely available, don’t require a prescription and can even be found for free at SHINE SA clinics. SHINE SA encourages all young people to take steps to engage in safer sex. This means always having a condom handy, making time for that discussion with your partner/s, ensuring you have informed and enthusiastic consent and getting regular sexual health checks either through a GP or at a SHINE SA clinic.

Natasha Miliotis SHINE SA’s Chief Executive said:

“National Condom Day is a great reminder to take control of our own sexual health. Through the use of condoms and regular testing, STIs are preventable.”

For more information on the sexual health of young people in South Australia see: www.sahmri.org/aboriginal-health-equity-theme/news-270/

Want to learn more about safer sex? To mark National Condom Day SHINE SA have released the Safer Sex – Use a Condom campaign. The campaign highlights the importance of condoms and the concepts of safety, pleasure and respect for a safer sex life. View the campaign here: www.shinesa.org.au/safersex

For further information and media enquiries see media release for contacts:

 

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FGM researcher says midwives are the frontline of Australia’s fight against the practice

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ABC Radio Sydney, 6/2/2020

For Western Sydney University researcher Olayide Ogunsiji, female genital mutilation was so prevalent where she grew up in Nigeria, her own cutting was never questioned. When her daughter was born, there was every chance her child would have also undergone the traumatic practice if not for the education Dr Ogunsiji received in antenatal care. 

Key points:

  • Female genital mutilation/cutting refers to procedures that removed or injured female genital organs for non-medical reasons
  • The practice is illegal in Australia but roughly 53,000 women have been living with female genital mutilation in Australia
  • Antenatal clinics were often on the frontline of helping these women, but one expert said staff needed more specialised training to be better equipped in dealing with these patients
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Free Online Recordings for Health Professionals: Andrology and Sexual Health

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SHINE SA, January 2020

SHINE SA have made select online recordings available from our Andrology and Sexual Health Update Day event in 2019. These recordings will be beneficial to health professionals looking to brush up on their knowledge of andrology and sexual health.

The online recordings available cover topics including sexual dysfunction, pelvic pain, PrEP and PEP, chemsex, androgen deficiency, gender affirming care and the SA syphilis outbreak.

All recording are available free of charge.

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High-risk behaviors and their association with awareness of HIV status among participants of a prevention intervention

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High-risk behaviors and their association with awareness of HIV status among participants of a large-scale prevention intervention in Athens, Greece.

Pavlopoulou, I.D., Dikalioti, S.K., Gountas, I. et al.

BMC Public Health 20, 105 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-8178-y

Abstract

Background

Aristotle was a seek-test-treat intervention during an outbreak of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Athens, Greece that started in 2011. The aims of this analysis were: (1) to study changes of drug injection-related and sexual behaviors over the course of Aristotle; and (2) to compare the likelihood of risky behaviors among PWID who were aware and unaware of their HIV status.

Methods

Aristotle (2012–2013) involved five successive respondent-driven sampling rounds of approximately 1400 PWID each; eligible PWID could participate in multiple rounds. Participants were interviewed using a questionnaire, were tested for HIV, and were classified as HIV-positive aware of their status (AHS), HIV-positive unaware of their status (UHS), and HIV-negative. Piecewise linear generalized estimating equation models were used to regress repeatedly measured binary outcomes (high-risk behaviors) against covariates.

Results

Aristotle recruited 3320 PWID (84.5% males, median age 34.2 years). Overall, 7110 interviews and blood samples were collected. The proportion of HIV-positive first-time participants who were aware of their HIV infection increased from 21.8% in round A to 36.4% in the last round. The odds of dividing drugs at least half of the time in the past 12 months with a syringe someone else had already used fell from round A to B by 90% [Odds Ratio (OR) (95% Confidence Interval-CI): 0.10 (0.04, 0.23)] among AHS and by 63% among UHS [OR (95% CI): 0.37 (0.19, 0.72)]. This drop was significantly larger (p = 0.02) among AHS. There were also decreases in frequency of injection and in receptive syringe sharing in the past 12 months but they were not significantly different between AHS (66 and 47%, respectively) and UHS (63 and 33%, respectively). Condom use increased only among male AHS from round B to the last round [OR (95% CI): 1.24 (1.01, 1.52)].

Conclusions

The prevalence of risky behaviors related to drug injection decreased in the context of Aristotle. Knowledge of HIV infection was associated with safer drug injection-related behaviors among PWID. This highlights the need for comprehensive interventions that scale-up HIV testing and help PWID become aware of their HIV status.

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Working appropriately in Aboriginal sexual health (video)

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YoungDeadlyFree, 2019

Learn about cultural awareness in Aboriginal health settings. It’s about being respectful, recognising differences, and being open to learning.

  • Watch video below:

 

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Australia’s Gen Z Study

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Australia’s Gen Zs: negotiating religion, sexuality & diversity

ANU, Deakin and Monash Universities, 2019.

Contemporary teenagers (Gen Z) are exposed to diversity in ways that are unprecedented, through social media, school and peers. How do they experience and understand religious, spiritual, gender and sexual diversity?

How are their experiences mediated by where they go to school, their faith and their geographic location? Are they materialist, secular, religious, spiritual, or do they have hybrid identities? How religiously literate are they? How is this shaping their worldviews?

The Australian Gen Z study provides a powerful insight into how teenagers are making sense of the world around them. This Australian Research Council funded project creates new ways of understanding the complexity of young people’s lives and the ways they are apprehending and dealing with diversity. We argue school education about worldviews is founded on ways of thinking about young people that do not reflect the complexities of Gen Z’s everyday experiences of diversity and their interactions with each other.

In October 2019 the first project report was released as part of the AGZ Study.

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