Risky gay sex blamed for HIV surge July 20, 2007 - 3:10PM
Risky gay sex is behind Australia's sharp surge in HIV infections, a national study of hospital data has confirmed.
And while NSW has escaped the resurgence, others such as Victoria have been hit hard, according to the report in the Medical Journal of Australia.
The major survey of HIV rates found that 12,313 Australians were infected with the lifetime disease in the 13 years between 1993 and 2006.
The number of new infections dropped 30 per cent in the 1990s and then climbed back to the same high between 2000 and 2006.
Professor John Kaldor, deputy director at the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, said the rise was due mainly to risky sexual behaviour among gay men.
Virus exposure through male-to-male sex accounted for 70 per cent of all cases, followed by heterosexual contact at 18 per cent.
In more than half of heterosexually-acquired cases, the person was born in or had a partner from a country with a high prevalence of HIV.
Exposure to HIV from injecting drug use was relatively rare, Prof Kaldor said.
The study also found that in NSW - historically the state with the highest HIV rate - numbers have remained stable for the past five years.
But in other parts of the country the trend was upwards, with Victoria now roughly equal to NSW in per capita diagnoses.
Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia also had significant increases.
Prof Kaldor said high-risk sex trends changed between cities.
In the late 1990s, gay Sydney men were the most likely to have casual unprotected intercourse, but this trend has since switched to Melbourne and Brisbane.
Prof Kaldor said there seemed to be a misunderstanding that HIV was no longer a serious disease.
"It's true treatments have improved a lot, but it's still very serious," he said.
"The treatments are still difficult and there are still several hundred Australians developing AIDS and dying every year."
The rise also raised questions about the effectiveness of current HIV prevention strategies, said Prof Kaldor, who called for new ways of promoting health messages to the gay community.
The findings were released ahead of the International AIDS Society conference to be held in Sydney from Sunday.
It will attract 6,500 delegates to hear the latest in new drug treatments, vaccine breakthroughs and risk reductions options like male circumcision.
If my area is anything to go by 90% of gay men are practicing unsafe sex most of the time. My eye's have recently been opened and I have become educated through a couple of gay aquaintences. It horrifies me. Like heterosexuals there are many different types of gay men. The tarty one's, the promiscuous one's, the one's who wait until they are in a committed relationship, the one's who practice safe sex and the one's who don't, to give just a small cross section. There is a practice called 'anonymous sex' where gay men go to popular areas known to gays (and some straight men) in the dark, anytime of the night right through until 4am. Popular spots around here are quiet beach spots. If you like someone when they walk past (even though you can hardly see them) you follow them and have an encounter that can last anywhere from a few minutes to 20 minutes. Encounters are shorter at the moment because of the cold. 99% of the time you will never know who you 'met' and probably never 'meet' them again. I have gay friends who are in committed monogamous relationships and have only recently become acquainted with a couple of men who are not in a relationship at all and go trolling or 'on the beat' as they call it, several nights a week. I find this behaviour abhorrent and when they discuss these night time forays in front of me it makes me physically ill. What has opened my eyes the most is that heterosexual men in 'committed' relationships engage in these encounters. Married men with children visit one of my acquaintances to satisfy the other side of themselves, a side their women don't know about and would be horrified by.
The thing is that is a possibility if these so called 'heterosexual men' go back to their wives and have unprotected sex with them after their 'gay' encounters and put their wives at high risk of getting an STD even the AIDS virus. Selfish Morons.
Chihuahua's bite is worse than its yap Sunanda Creagh Urban Affairs Reporter July 21, 2007
YOU are more likely to be bitten by a chihuahua than a greyhound in NSW, and dogs find adults tastier than children.
The latest dog report by the Department of Local Government reveals that 873 attacks were reported to councils in the year ending June 2005 and German shepherds bit more people than any other pure breed, followed by cattle dogs and rottweilers.
More than half of NSW councils did not comply with Government directions to provide data on dog attacks in their area, and most incidents go unreported.
"If you are out jogging along and a dog attacks you, most people don't report it to the council. And you often don't get a report if it's the family pet," the department's director general, Garry Payne, said yesterday.
Labradors, border collies and Jack Russell terriers are among the top 15 most commonly reported as having attacked people, but Mr Payne noted this was only a reflection of the huge popularity of the breeds.
Adults were the victims of 43.2 per cent of attacks, and children copped 11.7 per cent of all dog bites. Livestock made up the rest.
Mr Payne said the figures helped inform the Government pet policy, which was updated earlier this year to allow the immediate destruction of a declared dangerous or restricted breed that has attacked.
Mr Payne said anyone under attack by a dog should call a council ranger or the police, but it is within the victim's rights to fight back if necessary.
"You can take matters into your own hands, but remember there is any number of reasons a dog may attack. They could have been injured or mishandled or provoked and a dog has to be able to protect itself if it is provoked," he said.
New York has introduced a policy requiring all people to get third party insurance for dogs. The level of insurance required is based on how dangerous a dog-assessor finds the animal.
A spokesman for the Local Government Minister, Paul Lynch, said he was not aware of any moves to introduce a similar policy in NSW.
This pic below accompanied the above story. I love the dog!
Another war reopens trail to Canada July 21, 2007
A generation after Vietnam, an increasing number of American soldiers are evading Iraq by heading north, writes Ian Munro in Toronto.
BEFORE he deserted from the US Marine Corps, Dean Walcott had ridden shotgun on besieged convoys speeding towards Baghdad and spent a second Iraq tour setting up military communications.
Though he had re-enlisted and was in no imminent danger of being redeployed for a third tour to Iraq, Mr Walcott could not go through with it. He bought a ticket on a Greyhound bus and rode to Canada, joining a steady trickle of US enlisted soldiers seeking refuge.
Mr Walcott's life was up-ended in 2004 at a military hospital in Germany when burns survivors from the Mosul mess tent bombing were shipped in.
Some resembled nothing so much as lumps of coal, he said. As they screamed in pain despite the tide of morphine cascading through them, he tortured himself with questions.
"If you are going to do that to your country's soldiers and sailors, then there's got to be a damn good reason, not just the abstract like this one was," said Mr Walcott, 25.
He grew weary of trying to answer the young reservists recovering from the loss of limbs and wanting to know what the heck the war was about and why they were there when all they had wanted was what the recruiters had promised: help with a college education.
His time there was followed by eight months in Iraq, ending in March last year, when he asked not to be redeployed to the war zone. The tragedy for him was that his new job was preparing others to ship out to Iraq. "I put myself in a position where I may be safe, but I was asking other people to go instead of me."
Late last year he resolved not to do it any more and has had no regrets about joining the ranks of the deserters. He saw a military psychiatrist but has had no other psychiatric help since arriving in Canada on December 5.
The thing is that is a possibility if these so called 'heterosexual men' go back to their wives and have unprotected sex with them after their 'gay' encounters and put their wives at high risk of getting an STD even the AIDS virus. Selfish Morons...
Noooo. What I meant was if heterosexuals were totally to blame, nobody would admit it. It's far easier to blame a minority.
Noooo. What I meant was if heterosexuals were totally to blame, nobody would admit it. It's far easier to blame a minority.
Ahhhhhhhh! Suzi is off with the pixies today, sorry
Chris, you can buy bows and arrows in many ways. My sister used to live with a guy who had a cross-bow and arrows and they are lethal, and illegal. I was concerned for her safety.
Does that mean gay people are making a choice? or are they born? There is a large growth in the number of gay people per head of population in the last 20 years. I cannot believe there were so many hidden in the closet in generations past and that modern enlightenment means they can come out now and be a true representation of % figures , increase like we see now is a pointer to them making a choice of lifestyle.
Frantic calls before death SAM RICHES July 23, 2007 02:15am
TWO brothers charged with murder will appear in court today after Friday's fatal arrow shooting at Seaford.
Their arrest allegedly followed two frantic calls to police on Friday night during an altercation which led to the death of Graeme Gibson, 26.
Kev and Steve Tempero, aged 28 and 29, have spent the past two nights in custody after being arrested late on Friday night.
They are expected to appear in the Christies Beach Magistrates Court this morning.
Mr Gibson, a paver and father of a three-month-old baby girl, was shot with a compound bow. The Advertiser understands that one of the brothers had called police after Mr Gibson entered the Robertson Rd house about 10.40pm.
In the short time before police patrols arrived at the house, police received a second call from the house saying Mr Gibson had been shot.
Paramedics who arrived soon afterwards tried unsuccessfully to revive Mr Gibson, but he died at the scene.
His mother, Beverley, told Channel 9 last night that "you just don't think you are ever going to bury your children before you go . . . I'll never say goodbye, never ever".
At the weekend, South Coast Superintendent Anthony Fioravanti described the circumstances as a "tragic ending".
"It would appear the altercation had just resulted in a tragic ending and everything just went wrong," he said.
Friends of the brothers, who did not want to be identified, said it was not the first time Mr Gibson had been to the house.
I'll say the gay sex trend thing has increased in Brisbane.
I am not sure what you mean to say Dara. That there are more gay people? That there is an increase in Gay sex? That gay people are having unsafe sex more these days?
If it is that 'there are more gay people' then I believe that gay people are more at ease in this modern environment. There is a perceived safety in numbers and the more gay people who 'come out' the more gay people will see that they too can 'come out'.
If it is one of the other two, I am not sure how we would know unless we did a complete sensus on all gay people.
Regarding Gay people and what some people perceive as a 'lifestyle choice'. My daughter works with disabled people. One middle aged man with Down/Down's Syndrome is gay. No-one in this world can tell me he made this choice. He is most definately a homosexual.
The 'killed with an arrow' story sound very suspicious. Was it self defense from a man who was invading their home and in an agressive state?
If it is that 'there are more gay people' then I believe that gay people are more at ease in this modern environment.
My thoughts exactly. I find it hard to believe that there are more or less gay people in the world (in proportion to the world population); but more and more gay people are feeling more comfortable with their preference, and are less hesistant of pursuing persons of the same sex as scrutiny of their lifestyle is decreasing significantly. At least that's what I think.
CONTINUES TONIGHT! 6.30pm eVSC Fan Favourites 7.00pm eVSC Grand Finale : Compilation 7.12pm eVSC Grand Finale : Results #1 & #2 All times in AEDST. Air times and/or dates subject to delays.
Err... what the hell is with the new design? Looks like the roo needs to trim it's toenails. I say stick with the old design.
CONTINUES TONIGHT! 6.30pm eVSC Fan Favourites 7.00pm eVSC Grand Finale : Compilation 7.12pm eVSC Grand Finale : Results #1 & #2 All times in AEDST. Air times and/or dates subject to delays.
Logged
Suzi is off with the pixies today, sorry 
Surely they could've used the money much more constructively. The old logo was fine, eventhough theres hardly any difference. 