Most of us involved in Indigenous Health can quote the health statistics by heart. They have ten times the amount of renal disease, remote indigenous Australians have ten times the number per head of diabetes compared the the remote white population, hospitalised for pneumonia five times more than other Australians. Need I go on?
I will.
A review of the results of sexual health screens performed in 26 central Australian Aboriginal communities between 1994 and 1996 (with an eighty percent participation rate) showed
24–29% of 15–24 year olds were infected, as were about 10% of those aged 40–50 years
That data is now thirteen years old. Hopefully things have improved since then. So lets look at something more recent.
The Western Australian Aboriginal Sexual Health Strategy 2005-2008 reports that in Western Australia gonorrhoea notifications were 182 times more likely to be for Aboriginal youth than from non-Aboriginal youth.
One hundred and eighty two times higher.
(Click on graph for better view)
What would be the public health response if this occurred in the general population in, say, Melbourne or Sydney. I bet a lot more than the resources given to Aboriginal Health.
That is really just a lead in to the latest newsletter from the Australian Sexual Health and HIV Nurses Association. The first article provides an easily digested overview of Indigenous Health.
On page four there is a terrific article of hands on work during a sexual Health screen with Ngaanyatjarra Health in the Western Desert of Western Australia.
Enjoy the read.
References
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I work in the NT particularly around youth and sexual health and the rates are still quite high. Touching on the Central Australian STI Screen, I think has had some good impact however screening alone is not a sustainable way of bringing the rates down. It has burn out alot of health staff and if i’m not mistaken, the screen has been stopped.
I would like to think that behavioural interventions that have been put together by health promotion have behavioural intervention theories enshrined in the campaigns. I know it sounds funny – especially the way i’ve worded it.
Methods of engagement with youth have to take a slightly different curve as all previous methods have failed and keep costing the health care prevention budget lots of money.
Kishan
G’day Kishan
thanks for the comments.
Central Australia (including the tri-state area) still does yearly screening
Robbo