Professor Sharon Lewin, director of the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity said that:
Currently migrants to Australia who do not have a Medicare card are not eligible for free antiviral medication. There are some programs provided by the pharmaceutical companies that will provide antivirals for a limited period of time. The government is currently working out a solution to this problem. If an Australian living with HIV is in another country, access to treatment is country dependent. Most Australians will travel with a supply of antivirals or we sometimes send the antivirals to them if they are living overseas. In many countries, you can’t actually enter if you are HIV positive. In other countries, like the UK and France, antiviral treatment is free for everyone regardless of immigration status.
The Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity is a joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital. Its purpose is to reduce the virus going to hiding in the immune cell and to boost the immune system in order to control the HIV virus.
Professor Sharon Lewin said that the new HIV vaccine show promising result in boosting human's immune system. The institute is also very keen to study how 1% of people whose has very strong immune system that can control the virus and then would like to replicate that with new drugs that boost the immune system.
Professor Lewin mentioned that stigma is the main point stopping people getting test and treatment to prevent further transmission. Therefore, Fast Track City, a rapid testing system (Pronto) is set up to create a comfortable environment to make people feel safe to talk about HIV and to get treatment. These are done in fully confidential and with people's consent. But it is even better with HIV test and treatment are also covered by Medicare.
In 2016 UN has set goals to ends HIV AIDS by 2030, but Professor Sharon Lewin said that it's unlikely to accomplish.
There are a number of factors she said. First is to reduce the two million HIV new infected annually worldwide. Secondly is to get people from getting sick. That is they have to get antiretroviral therapy. By treating more HIV positive people we can reduce the chance of transmitting HIV virus or eliminate the number of people getting HIVAIDS and it is quite possible and last but not least prevention is needed.Therefore eliminating is still tantalizing but in order to get close to UN goals by 2030, encouraging people to get test, get treatment straight away, stay on the treatment lifelong and also prevention is the way to go.
That is why Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP (Truvada which contain tenofovir and emtricitabine) is jumping in according to the the Centre for Disease control and Prevention. It is a method for people who do not have HIV but might be at risk to take to prevent themselves from infecting.
You can listen more about HIV AIDS in Hmong and in English here:
READ MORE
Kab mob HIV-AIDS toom Ib
