Identifying gaps in achieving the elimination of HIV transmission among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men in Australia: The Gaps Project Report
Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, 2020
This report identifies gaps on the pathway in achieving the elimination of HIV transmission among GBMSM in Australia, through collating and analysing surveillance and behavioural data collected from multiple sources for the period between 2009 and 2018.
These data sources include the National HIV Registry, the Gay Community Periodic Surveys (GCPS), and the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced
Sentinel Surveillance (ACCESS) system. This report provides a detailed summary on national trends in HIV diagnoses, testing, treatment uptake, PrEP uptake and behavioural risk reduction. We looked specifically at disparities in these trends and gaps in the data among sub-groups of the GBMSM population, based
mainly on country of birth, age, and location of residence. The project did not attempt to exhaustively examine every gap in the HIV prevention response; the aim was to use these three existing data sources to explore gaps in a set of HIV prevention-related indicators.
Findings: Between 2009 and 2018, there was a 10% decline in the number of HIV notifications among GBMSM in Australia, with HIV notifications increasing until 2014 before declining by 29% between 2014 and 2018. Newly acquired diagnoses (infections acquired in the last 12 months) declined by 50% in GBMSM
between 2014 and 2018. These reductions have occurred alongside increases in HIV testing, HIV treatment and undetectable viral load, and in pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use. In addition, there have been declines in the proportion of GBMSM having anal intercourse with casual partners that is not
protected by condoms, PrEP or undetectable viral load. However, underlying these overall successes in HIV prevention, disparities have emerged.
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