This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to exame the prevalence of HIV among Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Although our study suggests the prevalence of HIV is low, the potential for HIV to increase exists especially among Aboriginal gay men and Aboriginal people who inject drugs. More community-based studies that are designed and implemented by Aboriginal people are needed that include Aboriginal people at risk and Aboriginal women. These studies need to exmine effective prevention messages, promote regular testing of at risk individuals to identify new infections early and trial culturally appropriate community and clinical strategies and support programs for Aboriginal people living with HIV.

Women living in regional Queensland have limited access to medical termination of pregnancy (MToP) services. Abortion also remains in the Queensland Criminal Code leading to the potential criminal prosecution for both the woman and the provider. However, Cairns Sexual Health Service has been providing MToP services for 10 years demonstrating that this service can be safely and successfully integrated into a primary health care setting. This paper documents the clinical practice, the characteristics of the women undergoing the procedure and the outcomes over the past 5-year period at Cairns Sexual Health Service.

The FSFI-VAS has internal consistency, construct validity, discriminant validity and reproducibility adequate to assess female sexual dysfunction in young women.

On a large gay website, we investigated factors associated with excluding or including HIV-positive men as potential sex partners among 57 178 Australian profiles. Being younger, living outside major cities, not identifying as gay, always preferring safer sex and being of either Caucasian or Asian background were associated with excluding HIV-positive men as potential sex partners. The disinclination to include HIV-positive men as potential sex partners may be due to fear of infection, stigma or poor information about HIV.

This study examined the social and sexual factors associated with online sex seeking in a sample of 774 gay and bisexual men recruited using respondent-driven sampling. Results indicate that men who used apps and websites to seek sex were not significantly less likely to participate in the gay community and, in fact, were less likely to be socially isolated from other gay men. However, these men exhibited lower emotional attachment to the gay community and differing patterns of seroadaptive risk management with their recent sexual partners.

Almost a quarter of HIV patients managed at the Alfred Hospital had an episode of detectable viral load between 20 and 200 copies/mL. Of these, half were an isolated viral blip, and only 7% of those with persistent low level viremia progressed to virological failure. Clinician management of low level viremia was generally conservative.

Previously demonstrated differences in sexual health literacy among university students by birthplace and religion were robust to adjustment for demographics and sexual education. Using factor analysis, three constructs for attitudes regarding sexual morality were generated, corresponding to sexually conservative attitude, more sexually libertine attitude, and negative attitudes toward persons with HIV. These three attitudinal constructs were able to account for much of the differences in sexual health literacy by birthplace and religion which adjustment for sexual education could not. These results indicate the potent impact of attitude and belief on sexual health literacy and support cultural framing in the design of sexual education programs.

This study explored the sexual health knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of young Sudanese Queenslanders (n = 229). Patterns of sexual behaviour among this predominately refugee-background group are not dissimilar to those of other young Australians. However, the self-reported patterns of risk behaviour combined with relatively low levels of sexually transmissible infection and HIV knowledge suggest this group of young people remain sexually vulnerable. These findings support the need for sexual health education and interventions that address the contextualised needs for this group of young people, particularly early within their resettlement experience.

In this whole-of-state, population-level data linkage study, chlamydia retesting rates and retest positivity rates were measured in individuals aged 15 to 29 years. Retesting rates were low, and retest positivity was high, reinforcing the importance of promoting safer sex practices to prevent re-infection, partner notification and treatment, and retesting to minimise the risk of long-term sequelae.

The present study used retrospective surveillance data to estimate chlamydia incidence rates and identified risk factors for infection among women. Chlamydia incidence declined with age; however specific risk behaviours were associated with infection among older women. Chlamydia control remains a challenge, with uncertainty about the best approach; testing among older women at least, should be informed by risk.

In high-incidence Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) settings, annual re-testing is an important public health strategy. Using baseline laboratory data (2009–10) from a cluster randomised trial in 67 remote Aboriginal communities, the extent of annual re-testing was determined, along with the associated patient, staffing and health centre factors.

Among 5445 Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) testing occasions during a 4-year study period, we observed a significant increase in yield of pharyngeal CT testing, although yield of anogenital CT testing remained stable. Without pharyngeal CT testing, over a quarter of pharyngeal CT infections and almost 5.0% of all CT infections would not have been treated.

This case report highlights the challenges of diagnosis, monitoring and treatment in a visceral leishmaniasis and HIV co-infected patient. This patient developed multiple complications including renal and liver failure, pancytopenia with recurrent sepsis as well as anal cancer, depression and poor quality of life. Urgent research specific to this cohort is needed, with an emphasis on accessible and affordable treatment options.

Four patients residing in China with urogenital gonorrhoea firstly failed to treat with 1000 mg cefathiamidine intramuscular. Ceftriaxone is still an effective treatment option for gonorrhoea in China. Continued monitoring of Neisseria gonorrhoeae susceptibility to cefathiamidine as well as ceftriaxone is imperative.

Data from the Second Australian Study of Health and Relationships (ASHR2) was used to ascertain the associations between sex education and sexual health outcomes, including history of sexually transmissible infection (STI), early pregnancy, contraception use at first sex and level of STI knowledge. A total of 19 836 Australians provided information on sex education and these data were analysed using logistic regression. After adjusting for age, education and non-English-speaking background, the odds of using contraception at first sex and a high level of STI knowledge were increased in respondents reporting sex education that included information on condoms and contraception.

This study assessed the acceptability of cervicovaginal self-sampling among Portuguese women. Most of the participants considered self-sampling a well-accepted method and felt no pain, no discomfort and no complexity. The willingness to repeat self-sampling was also reported by the majority of participants. Comparing self-sampling with physician-sampling experiences, women found the former less embarrassing, more comfortable or pleasant, less painful and considered it as the preferred method.