Sexually Transmitted Disease among Aboriginal Population in Australia

This report focuses on the sexually transmitted disease and health hazards among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. It discusses the nature of the health problem, the population affected, the magnitude of the health problem, proximal and distal determinants, additional features of the targeted population, and the requirement of public health intervention strategies.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
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Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Nature of the health problem...........................................................................................................2
Population affected..........................................................................................................................2
Magnitude of the health problem.....................................................................................................3
Proximal and distal determinants of the health problem.................................................................5
Additional features of the targeted population................................................................................6
Requirement of the public health intervention strategy...................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The aboriginal and the indigenous group of population tends to experience a very poor
health outcomes as compared to the other Australians (Reekie et al., 2018). One of the major
factor of concern of the health challenges among the aboriginal group of population is the area of
their sexual health. According to governmental reports, the aboriginal community people have
substantially higher rate of the BBVs, STIs and high rate of the teen pregnancy than the non-
aboriginal population in Australia. The targeted population is the sufferer of the gonorrhea,
chlamydia, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and infectious syphilis (Wand et al., 2016). This report aims
to focus over the sexually transmitted disease and the health hazards within the aboriginal and
Torres Strait islander people in Australia and draws attention towards the urgent requirement for
the preventive approaches related to health for addressing this particular critical health issue.
Nature of the health problem
Each year, there are innumerous number of reports that gets published regarding the
sexually transmitted infections and the blood borne viral diseases among the aboriginal
community people. The nature of the health hazard ranges from the HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea,
and infectious syphilis. The existence of the substantial deficits in the status of the aboriginal
people together with their social economic disadvantages has over represented in the national
BBV and STI data regarding the notification.
Population affected
The population or the targeted people are the aboriginal community people residing in
Australia. Apart from the adults, the aboriginal children below the age of 15 years are at the high

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risk of the sexually transmitted disease (Kildea et al., 2017). The rate of the STIs are particularly
higher among the community people residing in the outskirts or the remote location of the
Australia. The blood borne and the viral sexual transmission are mostly prevalent among the
women and the girl children who often rend to shy away from seeking the health care facilities.
Magnitude of the health problem
There has been a total number of 1081 notifications regarding the rate of the diagnosed
HIV infected aboriginal in Australia.
Figure – HIV notification rate among the aboriginals
Source – (Australian Federation of Aids Organization, 2015)

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Figure – The category of the HIV exposure
Source- (Australian Federation of Aids Organization, 2015)
The figures and the statistics above illustrates the rate of the HIV diagnosis among the
aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander population as compared to the non-aboriginal one. The
report furthermore highlighted the sexual contact among males to be the most highest.
Another threat contributing to the sexually transmitted disease is Chlamydia.

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Figure - Rate of chlamydia infection among the aboriginal population in Australia
Source – (Australian Federation of Aids Organization, 2015)
The disease, chlamydia predominantly impacts the people within the aboriginal
community ranging among 15-2 specifically among the women gender of the population.
According to the reports by the health survey of Australia, out of the 15, 876 reported and
diagnosed patients of the sexually transmitted disease, more than 60% of the population were
aboriginals from Australia. As illustrated in the below figure, the rate of the gonorrhea among
the aboriginal population was 18 times higher as compared to the non aboriginal one.
Figure - Rate of gonorrhea sexually transmitted disease among the aboriginal population in
Australia
Source – (Australian Federation of Aids Organization, 2015)
Proximal and distal determinants of the health problem

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The health outcomes of the aboriginal community are connected to the sexually
transmitted diseases that includes multiple factors like the historical, sociopolitical and the
geographical contexts that influences the rate and the nature of the sexually transmitted disease
within the community (Nattabi et al., 2017). These factors effects on the emotional, physical and
the spiritual health of the aboriginal individual. In the context of the aboriginal population, the
proximal determinants are inclusive of the cultural continuity, the community infrastructure and
the health care systems. The distal determinants include the racism, the colonialism and the
factor of self-determination that contributes to the sex related disease.
Additional features of the targeted population
The aboriginal population including the children have the higher rate of tendency to face
sexually transmitted disease due to their heavy drinking and their risky nature. The national
indigenous intelligence taskforce reported that the community have some of the dark truths that
has led most of the people to back out from the health care services (Giffard et al., 2016). The
child sexual abuse among the aboriginal community has been a news that has been chronically
undisclosed and under reported.
The children and the adults having sexually transmitted disease are also deemed as normal.
There lies a sheer scale of negligence and underreport of the sexual activity that involves the
children of the aboriginal community of Australia.
Requirement of the public health intervention strategy
The sexual health education programs are one of the best ways that is needed as the public
health intervention strategy for the improvement of the sexual health of the aboriginal population
in Australia. Some of the recommended interventions includes the following.

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 Strategies and community based programs
 Provision of sexual health education in the schools and the educational institutions
 Proper training in the workforce like the social workers, the health workers and youth
workers regarding the sexual health (UNESCO, 2015)
 Increase in the awareness and knowledge
 Increase in the communication with the caregivers and the parents regarding the sexually
transmitted disease
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded from the above report that there lies a strong evidence that
increase of the person’s level of the knowledge regarding the sexual health has positive effect of
the health outcomes. It is thus important to note that there lies a tremendous need for the
government to understand the effectiveness of the sexual health awareness program among the
aboriginal community consisting of both the children and the adults for addressing the major
issues of the sexually transmitted disease among the community.

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References
Australian Federation of Aids Organization. (2015, November). HIV and sexually transmissible
infections among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: summary of the latest
surveillance data. Retrieved from https://www.afao.org.au/article/hiv-sexually-
transmissible-infections-among-aboriginal-torres-strait-islander-people-summary-latest-
surveillance-data/
Giffard, P. M., Brenner, N. C., Tabrizi, S. N., Garland, S. M., Holt, D. C., Andersson, P., ... &
Ryder, N. (2016). Chlamydia trachomatis genotypes in a cross-sectional study of
urogenital samples from remote Northern and Central Australia. BMJ open, 6(1),
e009624.
Kildea, S. V., Gao, Y., Rolfe, M., Boyle, J., Tracy, S., & Barclay, L. M. (2017). Risk factors for
preterm, low birthweight and small for gestational age births among Aboriginal women
from remote communities in Northern Australia. Women and Birth, 30(5), 398-405.
Nattabi, B., Matthews, V., Bailie, J., Rumbold, A., Scrimgeour, D., Schierhout, G., ... & Bailie,
R. (2017). Wide variation in sexually transmitted infection testing and counselling at
Aboriginal primary health care centres in Australia: analysis of longitudinal continuous
quality improvement data. BMC infectious diseases, 17(1), 148.
Reekie, J., Donovan, B., Guy, R., Hocking, J. S., Kaldor, J. M., Mak, D. B., ... & Liu, B. (2018).
Risk of pelvic inflammatory disease in relation to chlamydia and gonorrhea testing,
repeat testing, and positivity: a population-based cohort study. Clinical Infectious
Diseases, 66(3), 437-443.

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UNESCO. (2015, April 27). UNESCO calls for strengthened sexuality education and sexual and
reproductive health services for young people in Eastern and Southern Africa. Retrieved
from https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-calls-strengthened-sexuality-education-and-
sexual-and-reproductive-health-services-young
Wand, H., Ward, J., Bryant, J., Delaney-Thiele, D., Worth, H., Pitts, M., & Kaldor, J. M. (2016).
Individual and population level impacts of illicit drug use, sexual risk behaviours on
sexually transmitted infections among young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people: results from the GOANNA survey. BMC public health, 16(1), 600.