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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