High-profile panel discusses anti-discrimination protections

Former Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graham Innes AO dispensed some very practical advice on how to get the biggest bang from your buck for a discrimination complaint, at an excellent panel event convened on 10 March by the HIV AIDS Legal Centre (HALC).

Hosted at the offices of DLA Piper, Sydney, the panel also included Shadow Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC MP, NSW Magistrate Nancy Hennessey, and partner in employment law at DLA Piper Brett Feltham.

Migration, social disadvantage & health

It's not often you go to a conference which opens with one of the keynotes literally juggling, but Associate Professor Kevin Pottie, from the University of Ottawa, did just that at the recent Migration, Social Disadvantage & Health conference in Melbourne.

He only just succeeded in keeping three balls in the air, which aptly demonstrated the difficulties of ensuring health equity for migrants. The balls represented political will, support and education for health practitioners, and the policy & social determinants of health. It was an excellent start to a conference in which a wide range of engaging presentations and discussions provided ample evidence for the challenges of keeping all of these factors in balance and working together to produce better health outcomes for migrants in Australia and internationally.

Don't forget about PEP (CROI Day 4)

AFAO Health Promotion Officer, Sean Slavin, blogs live from CROI 2015:

Amidst all the excitement at ‪#‎CROI2015‬ about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a session this afternoon on post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) - 'PEP: Remember Me?' - was an important reminder that this prevention technology should not be forgotten.

Hepatitis C: "Mission accomplished"? (CROI 2015 Day 4)

AFAO Health Promotion Officer, Sean Slavin, blogs live from CROI 2015:

A cure for hepatitis C? "Mission accomplished" is the message from ‪#‎CROI2015‬, as a range of new drugs demonstrate high efficacy with minimal side effects. A number of these have been approved for use in the US.

Implementation, however, is in its infancy and there are currently significant cost barriers with the drug manufacturers struggling to demonstrate cost effectiveness at current prices.In recent weeks competitive bidding began in the US between rival manufacturers and prices are expected to fall as more agents come onto the market.

HIV and lung cancer: smoking is a greater risk than HIV (CROI 2015 Day 3)

AFAO Health Promotion Officer, Sean Slavin, blogs live from CROI 2015:
 
In a session today at ‪#‎CROI2015‬ on cancer and HIV, lung cancer was highlighted as one of the most prevalent among people with HIV.

PrEP and women: low adherance highlights stigma and gender inequality (CROI 2015 Day 2)

AFAO Health Promotion Officer, Sean Slavin, blogs live from CROI 2015:

One of the most interesting papers at ‪#‎CROI2015‬ today was about the failure of Tenofovir gel as PrEP for women in the South African FACTS 001 trial. This study, among young, poor women showed that adherence is indeed a challenge and not necessarily because of any failure of the participants.

Good news on PrEP for gay men (CROI 2015 Day 1)

The annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2015) is being held in Seatle from 23-26 February. AFAO Health Promotion Officer Sean Slavin  is blogging live from Seattle, reflecting on some of the key highlights: