Sexual
Health
Position Vacant
– J: Regional STI/BBV Coordinator, Women | P: 08 8971 0024 | E:
n/a
Steven Hill – J: Regional STI/BBV Coordinator, Men | P: 08 8971 1156 | E:
steven.hill@wurli.org.au
Lack of reporting of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status on notifications for STI/BBVs has been an issue for many years and continues to be an area where much attention needs to be focused in order to improve the situation (National Centre in HIV epidemiology and Clinical research, 2007).
Therefore when reviewing notification data on numbers of sexually transmitted infections and blood borne viruses it is important to take this into consideration and the potential impact this might make on the amounts of infections within communities.
Many sexually transmitted infections are asymptomatic. A study into predictors of prevalence of bacterial infections in Aboriginal people North Queensland found that 92% of females and 96% of males who were diagnosed with an infection were asymptomatic at the time the screening was undertaken (Miller et al, 2003).
Sexually transmitted infections are found to be a very high rate in the Northern Territory, especially amongst Aboriginal people.
As Figure 1 shows the same situation is present in the Katherine region.
