Page 792 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 1990
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prevention and education on the other will need to develop in the ACT. Demands for specialised treatment and care programs for those with HIV or AIDS can be expected to increase.
In particular, demands for drug treatment, such as AZT, and other forms of therapy designed to prevent or delay the onset of AIDS or AIDS-related symptoms will increase. As AZT treatment costs $10,000 per patient per year, an increasing demand for its use could have significant budgetary implications both for the Commonwealth, which subsidises AIDS treatment through the Medicare agreement, and for the ACT.
These issues will need to be addressed very carefully. Demand for the use of AZT in a prophylactic capacity - in other words, for providing AZT to people who have been exposed to a potential risk of AIDS infection through needlestick injury or blood spill - is also expected to increase, placing further strain on funding programs. There is some suggestion that provision of AZT in such situations may inhibit progression through the disease should the infection risk prove real.
It will be important not to lose sight of the need to continue, and wherever possible increase, efforts in the education and prevention area, if the disease is not to overwhelm us.
Many other issues in the AIDS field will need to be addressed in the near future, both by way of response to the white paper and because they are issues which clearly warrant greater attention. For instance, particular groups within the community have received insufficient attention in the past but are, in one way or another, particularly at risk to the threat of AIDS. These include women.
The biology of the transfer of the virus means that in any heterosexual sexual encounter the woman is at a considerably greater risk of becoming infected if the male partner is already infected with the virus than if the reverse situation applies. AIDS prevention and education programs to date have tended to concentrate on the gay community and drug users - the two groups that are regarded as most at risk. Recognition that women are also a major risk group has led to the establishment of a women and AIDS forum, comprising representatives of relevant women's and AIDS groups. This forum as well as other agencies and the Department of Health are examining priorities and programs in the AIDS area and their relevance to women's needs.
Another group which has received less attention to date than would appear appropriate is people with disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities, who may be in situations in which they are at risk of becoming infected with the virus but, because of the lack of specific programs in this area, may lack the knowledge or understanding of ways in which to minimise the risk to
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