Australia risks becoming a victim of its prior success in preventing HIV/AIDS, with complacency capable of triggering a new wave of infections, a campaigner warns.
On the eve of World AIDS Day, a panel of experts and campaigners gathered in Sydney alongside those touched by the disease to remind sexually active Australians of the risk of infection.
By the end of 2006, the Department of Health and Ageing said 26,267 Australians had been diagnosed with HIV and 10,l25 people had been diagnosed with AIDS since records began in the early 1980s.
Over the same period, AIDS claimed 6,723 lives in Australia.
Even newly appointed Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has been touched by the tragedy of AIDS, with his brother Philip dying from the disease in 1995.
Panel member Vince Lovegrove, a director, writer and AIDS awareness educator whose wife and son died from the disease, warned of the possibility of an AIDS pandemic.
His wife Suzi died of AIDS 26 years ago, followed six years later by his son Troy, who contracted AIDS in utero.
Mr Lovegrove documented his wife's battle in order to educate Australians about HIV/AIDS, and subsequently became a leading voice in the fight against the spread of AIDS during the 1980s and 90s.
He now says he fears a new generation is at risk and a new advertising campaign is needed.
"This is the moment it all could go astray. This is the moment when it can become a pandemic," Mr Lovegrove said.
"We need another Grim Reaper campaign. It showed the public this is serious.
"We need to mobilise the whole of society and you don't do that unless you confront them on television."
Sydney Sexual Health Centre director Professor Basil Donovan agreed AIDS complacency was a serious risk, adding that prevention is always better than a cure.
"We all want (a cure), but do we really need one? Because I am not sure it will solve our problem," he said.
"What happens when you get a cure and even now with the highly effective anti-viral therapy is that it helps this compartmentalisation, where (people say) `oh well, if I get it I can get treated'."
Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations executive director Don Baxter said Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd must succeed where the previous government failed.
"Commonwealth investment in AIDS programs was allowed to steadily decrease over the last decade - yet HIV have been on the rise for the last five years in all states except NSW," he said.
The NSW government on Friday announced it would mark World AIDS Day by giving $20 million to a range of non-government organisations who work in the prevention and treatment of the disease.
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