A key health project to deliver HIV testing, prevention and treatment information to international students in NSW is making steady progress.

The MHAHS International Student’s Project Officer, Galuh Sapthari, reports increasing interest from a number of educational institutes and services to collaborate with the project.

“We have a number of educational institutes expressing interest to collaborate with us and engage their teachers and students alike in increasing awareness of HIV testing, prevention and treatment. Discussions are already afoot in developing an English language curriculum using HIV as a topic at some centres and scheduling training workshops at others in the coming months. We are determined to provide our international student communities with necessary HIV information and keep them safe,” Ms Galuh said.

There are more than 600,000 international students in Australia in 2017 with over 260,000 enrolments in NSW.

The Project is aimed at raising awareness of contemporary HIV testing, prevention and treatment options among overseas students studying in NSW. It encourages international students to seek free help from relevant HIV services if they feel they are at risk while studying in NSW.

For more project details, contact Gula Sapthari on 9515 1234 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sydney’s Vietnamese community has welcomed the New Year Tet festival with red envelopes containing health messages on hepatitis B and small gifts from the South Western Sydney Local Health District at Fairfield Showground on 23-25 February.

Local Health District Health Education Officer, Uyen Truong, presented the lucky envelopes at the festival and spoke to the community about protecting their health by learning more about hepatitis B.

“Hepatitis B is common in many culturally diverse communities, including our own,” she said. “Most people with hepatitis B don’t have symptoms and many don’t know they have it. We hope to raise awareness and put hepatitis B on our community’s agenda."

MHAHS Cultural Support Officer, Kim Trang, was at the event with her colleague Ann Nguyen to answer possible questions about the epidemic from the public.

“This was a very positive experience. So many people stopped by to chat with us about hepatitis B. Some wanted more information about their ongoing hepatitis B treatment in their own language while others shared their stories about their treatment. Many liked getting their hands on the red envelope and taking their pictures at the photo booth which generated photos with hepatitis B messages on them,” said Ms Kim.

There are more than 239,000 people living with chronic hepatitis B in Australia with about 84,000 in NSW. Nearly 40 per cent of them don’t know they have the virus. Untreated, chronic hepatitis B can cause serious liver damage and liver cancer.

The Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service (MHAHS) helped run an information stall at Mardi Gras Fair Day on 18th February. Coordinated by the HARP Unit from Sydney Local Health District, the MHAHS team helped distribute various health resources  at the event.

Health Promotion Officer, Ally Kerr, who helped at the stall with our other Health Promotion Officer, Natali Smud, said the event was an ideal opportunity to collaborate with other services.

“It was great to meet with people from many other health services at the event. Events such as these not only increase our visibility, they also make health information more accessible to our communities,” she said.

Details about other community events are available here.

The HIV prevention drug, PrEP, looks set to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), drastically slashing its price and increasing its accessibility for tens of thousands of potential users.

According to reports the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which provides recommendations on what drugs should be listed and publicly subsidised, is set to advise the government to list Truvada, the commercial name for PrEP.

PrEP is a once-daily pill that is considered to be 99% effective at preventing new HIV diagnoses when used properly.

Truvada can currently cost up to $10,000 a year but a PBS listing is expected to bring the price to below $500 a year, meaning thousands of at-risk individuals, including men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers, will have greater access to the drug.

However whilst PrEP’s success and its listing on PBS are welcome news, much remains to be done to relise its full potential particularly among the culturally diverse communities, according to Barbara Luisi, manager of the Multicultural HIV and Hepatitis Service.

“People from diverse cultural backgrounds remain overrepresented in newly diagnosed HIV cases in Australia these past few years. For PrEP to be fully effective, we need to ensure there is increased awareness of HIV risk amongst our diverse communities, along with an understanding of the range of prevention options, including the benefits of testing and treatment. The PBS listing of PrEP is both a historic opportunity to reach out to such a population and to tackle an important global epidemic,” Ms Luisi said.