Ending HIV transmission for all in our communities
- We provide up-to-date information and deliver innovative social marketing campaigns to our communities on a variety of sexual health issues.
- We develop peer-led prevention programs to reduce transmissions of HIV and other STIs in our communities.
- We improve access to testing with models that are responsive to the needs of our communities.
- We advocate for innovative responses to end HIV transmission and reduce STIs in Australia.
Summary Highlights
HIV Prevention
To drive down new HIV notifications, we must continue to effectively engage and mobilise people in our communities to test often, treat early and stay safe. We continue to develop and promote campaigns to build knowledge and skills, operate HIV and STI testing services, run HIV prevention and risk reduction community workshops, provide a range of support services and distribute hundreds of thousands of free safe sex packs every year throughout NSW.
Data from the NSW Ministry of Health show that the HIV response in NSW continues to bounce back from the impacts of COVID disruptions with HIV testing and PrEP intake returning to pre-pandemic levels. New HIV notifications remained low but there was an increase among people with evidence of late diagnosis.
Between January and March 2023, there was a 32% drop in diagnoses with evidence of early infection compared to the five-year average. Among gay, bisexual and men who have sex with men (MSM), HIV notifications were 2% lower compared with new diagnoses for the same quarter for the last five years. Overall, however, HIV diagnoses increased by 11% largely driven by overseas MSM and heterosexual people, particularly those being diagnosed late.
HIV testing rose by 16% in January to March 2023 compared to the previous year. This increase brings the testing rate almost back to pre-pandemic levels.
PrEP use, too, is bouncing back. The number of unique NSW residents prescribed PrEP under the PBS rose from 9,612 in October to December 2022 to 10,348 people in January to March 2023 – an 8% increase. This result also marks a 15% increase compared to same quarter in 2022.
Key to engaging our communities with vital HIV prevention messages is our social marketing campaigns. ACON has a proud history of developing community-led and inclusive campaigns that speak directly to our audiences. Combination prevention and PEP awareness were among the health messages featured in this year’s major campaign, With Love. Visit the With Love website here.
ACON’s award-winning community education and mobilisation initiative Ending HIV continues to educate gay, bisexual and other MSM on what they can do to help prevent new HIV transmission in NSW. With all eyes on Sydney during WorldPride, we elevated Ending HIV’s key messages of staying safe, treating early and testing through our With Love campaign, digital marketing initiatives, online forums, peer education workshops and other activities. Over the year, we also delivered messages and information on other emerging sexual health issues, such as shigella and mpox.
Emen8 is our national digital HIV prevention and sexual health resource for gay, bisexual and other MSM. It’s produced in partnership with Thorne Harbour Health and funded by the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care. Emen8 adopts an innovative ‘stealth health’ approach to reach its target audience, utilising social media and leveraging community connection to amplify sexual health and wellbeing messages. 2022/23 saw Emen8’s biggest campaign to date, which encouraged uptake of the mpox vaccine. It promoted a combination of digital and print assets across the country, driving over 1 million views to campaign videos and over 400k page views of related content. It was with this campaign that we helped gay, bisexual and other MSM in Australia to stay informed, benefit from the government’s swift vaccine rollout, and avoid the impact of outbreaks experienced by other countries.
While we are seeing HIV notifications drop, we are not seeing the same level of declines among those living in outer and regional areas with lower concentrations of gay-identified men. Overseas-born gay, bisexual and MSM also account the largest group being diagnosed late.
ACON continues to work with NSW Health and other partners in engaging all groups at risk of HIV transmission, in HIV prevention, testing and care messaging and services, as well as ensuring greater and earlier uptake of treatment among those living with HIV.
Read more about our work in HIV prevention at acon.org.au/what-we-are-here-for/hiv-prevention
HIV Campaigns
Getting people in our communities to test more, treat early and stay safe is crucial in our efforts towards the virtual elimination of HIV transmissions. As well as delivering programs and services, we develop and deliver innovative social marketing campaigns that engages our communities on HIV and sexual health.
WorldPride took over Sydney in February and March, drawing an estimated festival audience of one million.
WorldPride was held concurrently with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. As Australia’s largest LGBTQ health organisation, it was vital for ACON to ensure locals and visitors alike remained healthy and safe throughout the celebrations with access to appropriate health messages, information and resources.
To help achieve this, this year’s large-scale health promotion campaign With Love featured messaging that highlighted important health and safety issues relevant to our communities, including HIV prevention and sexual health.
Among the key health messages featured in the campaign were around HIV and STI prevention. These include streams on combination prevention strategies including condoms, PrEP, and undetectable viral load. The campaign also raised awareness of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for emergencies. In addition, there were harm reduction messages for alcohol and partying safety, street safety, sexual consent, as well as strong public health advice to reduce the spread of mpox and COVID-19.
The campaign unfolded across NSW with a particular focus on Sydney and surrounding areas. A carefully crafted media strategy saw With Love disseminated to more than a thousand placements spanning print, digital, out-of-home, cinema and radio.
The health messages of With Love were further amplified by in person activations at WorldPride’s major events including Fair Day, Domain Dance Party, Human Rights Conference, Mardi Gras Parade, Mardi Gras Party, Bondi Beach Party, Rainbow Republic, Ultraviolet and Pride Villages on Oxford Street and Crown Street and dozens of other satellite events during the festival.
A legion of community volunteers passionately supported ACON’s efforts at these events, engaging with revellers and distributed safe sex packs, essential health and safety information and resources.
The success of the With Love campaign was highlighted by the countless event attendees interacting with our volunteers. Furthermore, we conducted an online evaluation survey, collecting feedback from 462 members of the LGBTQ+ community:
- Over half (55%) recalled the campaign prior to participating in the survey.
- 70% of respondents who attended Sydney WorldPride events could recall the campaign.
- An impressive 85% affirmed that the advertisements effectively conveyed the intended message.
- A staggering 99% deemed the With Love campaign video engaging. This video garnered over 844,607 views on social media and garnered 4.2 million digital impressions.
HIV & Sexual Health
We’re here to help sexuality and gender diverse people in NSW take control of their sexual health by providing information and a range of support services including peer-run testing facilities for HIV and sexually transmitted infections; sex, health and relationship workshops; free condoms, safe sex packs and resources; and dedicated programs for young gay men, Asian gay men, sexually adventurous men, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
ACON’s Peer Education project continued engage to gay, bi+ and queer men on HIV prevention, sexual health, relationships and community connection. This year, we conducted the popular ACON workshops ‘Looking for Mr Right’ and ‘Arse Class’. We also collaborated with ACON’s young gay, bi+ and queer men’s program, SPARK, to design an exciting new forum called ‘The Art of Connection’. In total, Peer Education engaged around 1,000 participants in its workshops.
Throughout the year, Peer Education also continued to promote ACON’s HIV prevention and sexual health messages through outreach efforts at various Sydney WorldPride events, community activations and universities.
ACON’s Asian Gay Men’s Project continued to provide support for gay, bi+, and queer men from Asian cultural backgrounds through regular events, peer-led forums ConversAsians and SocialisAsians, and other community outreach work. ‘Good Vibes – For Fun’ was ACON’s first ConversAsians event conducted entirely in the Thai language to connect Thai gay, bi+ and queer men with the latest sexual health and HIV information. ‘Chai Chat’ provides a space for South Asian gay, bi+ and queer men to meet and share their experiences with other community members from South Asian backgrounds. Additionally, we provided support for events such as Bar Bombay, the Taiwanese Community Forum, ANTRA and Filipino LGBTQ social group, FLAGCOM.
Find out more about our work with Asian Gay, Bi+ & Queer Men here.
ACON’s SPARK project continued its efforts in delivering volunteer-led community workshops, forums and outreach programs to address the sexual health needs of young gay, bi+ and queer men.
This year, SPARK launched ‘The Art of Connection’, a new workshop that engages participants on art while receiving important sexual health education. During Sydney WorldPride, SPARK held its annual Youth History Walk and engaged community members at Fair Day and Minus18’s Queer Formal.
Throughout the year, SPARK conducted outreach activities at The University of New South Wales’ Hump Day and ‘Sextember’ events, as well as at Macquarie University, The University of Sydney and Western Sydney University. In total, these outreach efforts led to interactions with 265 community members.
Engaging LGBTQ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities remains a strong focus of our health promotion work. This year, we supported several important community events where we delivered vital health messages including at the Yabun Festival in Sydney and Koori Knockout in Nowra; at National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week events; at conferences including Pride in Practice in Melbourne; and at Sydney WorldPride including Fair Day and the Mardi Gras Parade.
The project was involved in the production of the First Nations Float, which featured a 20-metre Rainbow Serpent dubbed ‘Gari’. ACON facilitated community consultation and supported its construction to see it proudly snake its way at the Mardi Gras Parade and the Pride March on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Our Fair Day activation welcomed Gadigal person Nadeena Dixon who ran weaving interactions with community members at the First Nations Circle, which resulted in having around 500 conversations with community throughout the course of the day. The project also had a presence at the First Nations Gathering Space, ‘Muri Murrang But But’, held through the WorldPride season.
ACON is also continuing on its reconciliation journey. Read ACON’s Reconciliation Action Plan here.
ACON’s M3THOD program continues to support the people who use drugs like crystal methamphetamine and GHB when having sex. Our M3THOD 1-on-1 peer service worked with 34 clients, seeking to learn how to party safely, change their relationship to ‘party and play’ (PnP) or reduce the frequency of their drug use.
In collaboration with ACON’s Substance Support Counselling Service, the M3THOD team also devised a group program for people who use drugs who want to gain in-depth understanding of their drug use and make the changes that suit individual needs.
ACON’s Sexperts program, delivered in partnership with sex-on premises venues, provides sexual health promotion focusing on testing, HIV prevention and risk reduction. ACON Sexperts operated in venues throughout the year and volunteers recorded 64 hours of attendance during 32 shifts and provided 97 occasions of service to community members who received information on combination prevention, PrEP, and undetectable viral load, as well as testing, PEP and general sexual health and mpox vaccination.
Engaging with LGBTQ+ people from culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse migrant and refugee backgrounds, and people of colour, is an important part of our health promotion work and community development efforts.
During Sydney WorldPride, ACON partnered with Sweatshop to publish Stories Out West, an anthology of short stories by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally diverse LGBTQ+ writers from Western Sydney.
ACON also supported multicultural LGBTQ+ community events during Sydney WorldPride, including FLAGCOM’s ‘Miss Mardi Gras International Queen Pageant’, FAGLA’s ‘Miss Pride Queen Pageant’, and the Queer Displacement Conference by the Forcibly Displaced People Network.
ACON and the West Ball collaborated again this year to promote HIV and sexual health among queer and trans people of colour in Western Sydney. This year the West Ball was hosted at Street University Liverpool and we partnered with South Western Sydney Local Health Districts and the Liverpool Sexual Health Clinic to provide sexual health information and resources to attendees.
A key area of focus for ACON in the coming year is supporting communities in Greater Western Sydney. There is a thriving and resilient LGBTQ+ community in Greater Western Sydney, however these communities experience higher psychological distress and poorer health outcomes, especially in HIV and sexual health, than LGBTQ+ people in inner Sydney. In 2023/24, ACON will explore and develop peer educations programs for gay, bi+ and queer men in Greater Western Sydney. We will also be exploring adapting new technologies and methods to further the reach of our sexual health messages.
You can find out more about our work in HIV and sexual health at acon.org.au/what-we-are-here-for/sexual-health
HIV Testing
Getting people in our communities to test for HIV more often is vital to our efforts to ending HIV transmissions in NSW. Making testing easier and more accessible as well as educating gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men about the importance of testing regularly are important areas of focus for our approach to HIV prevention.
The latest data from NSW Health indicate that HIV testing rates among gay, bi+ and queer men is returning to pre-pandemic levels, which is crucial in our efforts to end the transmission of HIV in NSW. In the first quarter of 2023, HIV testing in NSW was 16% higher compared to the same quarter in 2022. Similarly, the number of HIV tests performed in publicly funded sexual health clinics during the first quarter of 2023 was 56% higher than the same quarter in 2022. ACON’s community engagement and mobilisation efforts throughout Sydney WorldPride contributed to collective efforts to raise awareness of the importance of regular HIV testing and prompt gay, bisexual and other MSM to get tested for HIV.
a[TEST] Oxford Street, Surry Hills, and the a[TEST] Chinese Clinic, community-based rapid HIV and STI testing facilities continue to record high demand. Collectively our a[TEST] sites delivered 6,238 occasions of service throughout the year. As well as HIV and STI screenings, clients at a[TEST] are also given access to sexual health information and resources. The service further acts as an active referral pathway into other ACON services such as counselling peer education workshops and more.
During WorldPride, ACON and Sydney Sexual Health Centre took several measures to ensure that the community received accessible sexual health services via a[TEST]. Nursing staff at the Oxford Street location increased by 50% and changes were made to a[TEST] procedures to increase accessibility and reduce barriers to care. These included enabling travellers and those unfamiliar with the booking system to attend without an appointment. Additionally, the team implemented the NSW nurse protocol, which allowed nurse led dispensing and supply to initiate PrEP and provide PEP without a doctor’s prescription. a[TEST] Oxford Street, a[TEST] Surry Hills and a[TEST] Chinese Clinic would not be possible without the support of our clinical partner, the Sydney Sexual Health Centre and South Eastern Sydney Local Health District. We acknowledge their partnership and thank them for the ongoing support.
Crucial to efforts towards the virtual elimination of HIV transmission is increasing HIV testing in regional areas. Throughout the year, ACON continued efforts to engage our communities on HIV and STI testing through our regional offices and outreach service.
In Newcastle, ACON continued to collaborate with Hunter New England Sexual Health to provide a free, drop-in HIV and STI testing service.
A pop-up HIV testing service was provided during Broken Hill’s Broken Heel Festival in September 2022. We also continue to provide HIV and sexual health outreach across the Northern Rivers region as well as Southern and Far West NSW, providing community members with information and resources on HIV testing, STI screenings, as well as sexual health, PrEP and PEP.
Key to getting more people to test for HIV is providing more HIV testing options, such as the ability to conduct self-tests.
ACON’s you[TEST] service allows people to test for HIV at home with either a HIV self-test kit or a Dried Blood Spot test. Clients get access to peers and further information and referrals via video call.
Throughout the year, ACON distributed over 650 HIV self-test kits.
We also continued to provide our communities with information and resources on NSW Health’s Dried Blood Spot test service, which allows people to test for HIV at home and send off dried blood samples by mail for laboratory testing.
As we shift to a post-pandemic environment, ACON will continue its work in encouraging our communities to test for HIV and make it part of their regular sexual health screening routine. We will be launching a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of regular HIV testing. We are also progressing work towards the re-opening of a[TEST] in Newtown, which was closed in 2020 because of COVID.
Find out more about HIV testing at endinghiv.org.au/test-often.
Mpox Prevention
ACON continues to work with the NSW Ministry of Health and other partners to develop and implement strategies to prevent the transmission of mpox.
ACON has been working closely with NSW Health, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care and our other partners to ensure our communities remained informed about mpox. Over the year, we implemented strategies to prevent transmission and minimise the spread of mpox in NSW and nationally.
As we now know, the substantial increases in mpox cases did not eventuate in Australia and this is testament to the strength of our public health infrastructure and the well-established HIV partnership network.
This year, we launched a national campaign Prick – Pause – Play to raise awareness of mpox and the importance of getting vaccinated. The campaign, delivered by our online sexual health resource for GBMSM, Emen8, featured messages around knowing the symptoms, risk factors, prevention strategies and where to get the vaccine. It was among a range of communications strategies we implemented to engage our communities on staying safe and to minimise the spread of mpox in Australia. The campaign was funded by the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care.
Learn more about the campaign on Emen8 here.
In the past year, ACON has delivered a suite of communication activities designed to inform affected communities about mpox. These include:
- Communications delivered through culturally relevant platforms including social media, hook-up apps and LGBTQ online news and media outlets.
- Dedicated webpages with information about mpox including transmission, risk reduction and important information about vaccinations.
- Targeted social marketing campaigns tailored specifically for GBMSM such as Emen8’s Prick – Pause – Play. See examples here.
- Media releases and updates from trusted ACON leaders.
- Public forums to provide information on mpox, allowing for targeted messaging to community based on local epidemiology and build confidence in the vaccine and testing.
- Forums for target populations, including bi+ community members in collaboration with Sydney Bi+ Network.
- Partnership work with SOPVs, providing critical information, education, and support.
- Targeted social media campaigns encouraging revellers to get vaccinated and stay at home if they contract mpox.
During WorldPride, which saw hundreds of thousands of international visitors descend to Sydney, ACON and our partners ramped up our mpox response. These included:
- Scaling up mpox communications in the lead up to Sydney WorldPride.
- Making vaccines available to international visitors.
- Creating vaccination pop ups at Sydney WorldPride events and at locations frequented by GBMSM.
- Continuing to push out messaging throughout the festival to remind people to stay at home if they felt unwell or developed symptoms.
The first doses of JYNNEOS arrived in early August 2022 and ACON has provided ongoing support in the rollout of NSW’s mpox vaccination program.
As well as developing communications and campaigns on the mpox vaccination, we provide operational support to South East Sydney Local Health District, Sydney Local Health District and other districts in the establishment of vaccinations hubs. These include the Crown Street Mpox Vaccination Hub, followed by mpox vaccination hubs at Mallet Street, Camperdown, Blacktown and St Vincent’s Hospital Darlinghurst and Wallsend in Newcastle.
Due to the global shortages in the JYNNEOS vaccine, we provided guidance and support in ensuring a highly targeted enrolment for vaccination with eligibility identified by NSW Health.
ACON also provided trained peers to ensure that those receiving the vaccine felt comfortable accessing services.
The rapid and effective implementation of a peer-supported mpox vaccination response that reached thousands of GBMSM in NSW and ensured adequate vaccine coverage ahead of WorldPride is a testament to ACON’s long-standing clinical partnerships and our expertise in peer-led models of care.
ACON has provided support with recruitment as well as ethical guidance to ensure that mpox research projects are of the greatest benefit to our communities.
As we look ahead, we will continue to develop strategies to prevent mpox transmission in NSW, encourage vaccine uptake and support those most at-risk of mpox infection, in partnership with NSW Health, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, and other sector partners.
Our Focus Areas
