Public Health and Law Policy Assignment

PUBLIC HEALTH
AND LAW POLICY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PROJECT 3......................................................................................................................................3
HIV/ AIDS.......................................................................................................................................3
The current status of HIV/ Aids in Australia...............................................................................3
Historical Development...............................................................................................................4
Barriers and Challenges in the implementation of the Policy......................................................5
Economic, political and social factors influenced development of HIV/AIDS minimizing
policy............................................................................................................................................6
Main actions included in supporting for and influencing policy in context of HIV....................8
CONCLUSION-..............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
HIV/ AIDS is a sexually transmittable disease which till recent had no plausible cure and
was treated as a stigma in the Australian society. In this report, an analysis has been presented on
the current status of the disease in Australia which has later been followed by the historical
analysis of the disease in Australia. This involves collection of the relevant statistics and facts
and figures that will help in determining whether there has been any improvement and what are
the measures that have been adopted by the government. Further, this report will also analyse the
political, social and economic factors that impact the policy formulation and particularly in the
healthcare sector of Australia (Power and et.al., 2017). This has been followed by the
identification of those factors that justify the policy which has been formulated for AIDS by the
Australian government and this will be then followed with the barriers that the government can
face in implementation and evaluation of such policies that have been formulated. Lastly, an
appropriate conclusion synthesising all the factor that were analysed in this report will be
presented.
PROJECT 3
HIV/ AIDS
The current status of HIV/ Aids in Australia
Despite HIV spreading at almost epidemic levels in the year 1987, it can be illustrated
fairly well that today, in the current time, the spread of HIV has been controlled and even
minimized in Australia due to the multiple policies that have been implemented by the
government of Australia and the variety of schemes and initiative adopted by them. Kirby
Institute for infection and immunity in society collects data regarding to HIV in each district and
city each year which is then synthesized and presented. It was estimated that in year 2018, there
were only 835 people who were diagnosed with HIV positive in Australia and this has been
presented as the lowest number of people that were diagnosed since year 2001 (HIV Statistics,
2017). It was further revealed that there was an increased intake of PrEP which is a pill that was
taken so that transmission of HIV could be prevented between two men who were involved
physically. This has also assisted in controlling the widespread of the disease. Apart from this,
there is however no significant improvement in the HIV levels amongst the indigenous
Australians. Women, comprising almost one fifth of the entire indigenous population gets
infected with HIV and Federal Government even announced funding of $20 million for

educating and guiding the aboriginals (HIV statistics in Australia, 2016). The CEO of the
Australian Federation of AIDS concluded that the policies that have been implemented by
Australian government has set an unprecedented example in Aids prevention and are therefore
used as an example by other countries. There has been almost 23% decline in the rates of people
getting diagnosed with HIV positive in the past five years in Australia and such figures present
an extremely positive outlook of the eco0nomy and the healthcare policies that have been
adopted by them (HIV diagnoses in Australia hit 18-year low, but there is still a way go, 2018).
When the figures that were at the time of epidemic like situation in the country are compared
with the numbers today, it can be concluded that the improvement have been extremely
significant. There are global targets that have been set up by the United Nations and by the year
2020, it aims to cure almost 90% of people who have been diagnosed with the HIV by giving
them antiretroviral therapies for suppressing the virus within (HIV Statistics, 2017). Therefore,
currently, the position of patients suffering from HIV aids is marginally much better, however,
the same cannot be said in case of Aboriginal Australians.
Historical Development
In Australia, it can be evidently noted that the history of HIV/ AIDS in the country is
prominent and it has even reached the rate of epidemic levels in the country. Both the
government organization as well as the non-governmental organizations in Australia have been
extremely active right from the beginning in maintaining and controlling the disease (Chan and
et.al., 2015). The Health policy that the Australian government formulated was instrument in
controlling the spread of the disease in its initial day so that the situation of crisis could be
averted. In the late 90s when the disease was much feared and not easily understood, the
government of Australia used extreme methods such as using mainstream media channels i.e. TV
for educating people and reducing the stigma around the HIV disease. There were a number of
initiatives that were carried out intensively by the governmental organizations as well as the
NGOs and in the year 2000, the government launched an HIV/ AIDS prevention program with
the budget $200 million targeted for South East Asia and in year 2010, this budget was increased
to $600 million (Martinello and et.al., 2018). There have been involvement at the international
level of both the government and of NGOs working in the Australian economy to collectively
combat the disease altogether. In Australia, there are a variety of laws that have been formulated
by the government for minimizing the impact of the disease and to control the possible methods

through which the disease can get transferred. One such prominent act is the Disability
Discrimination Act, 1992 under which it was made illegal by the Australian government to
criticise any individual suffering from Aids in any manner or through any medium. The blood
donations also became highly regulated in the country and the government implemented strict
policy for using the HIV screening test for all the blood donors before their blood was taken (Jin
and et.al., 2019). Apart from this, there was a stricter regulation on the statistics of pregnant
women in Australia and those who were diagnosed with positive HIV while being pregnant were
taken extra care off so that the impacts of transmission of this disease to the new born could be
minimized. Over the time, however it has been made possible to minimize and control the impact
of HIV where people diagnosed with such disease are able to live a normal and healthy life when
they take regular intake of antiretroviral drugs which are available at a subsidised rate to the
patients infected with HIV under Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS). This has helped in
getting easier access to the treatment available for the patients and encourages them to live in a
healthier way.
Barriers and Challenges in the implementation of the Policy
There are many barriers and challenges that are coming during the law implementation.
Some of these barriers are as follows:-
 Resistance:- There are many people in society that resist change and do not adopt the
policies that are set in order to minimise the spread of HIV AIDS. It takes time to make
such people aware about the effectiveness of these policies as it become important role
for the government to make the people aware and convince so that they accept and adopt
these policies. The implementation to this policy is very important for the people and
their health and if they do not understand its importance than there is no use of such
policies. It takes lots of efforts to make the people aware and adopt the change for their
own benefits(Moore & et.al., 2017).
 Lack of education:- It is very easy to implement the policy, but it is very tough to make
people aware so that they can adopt the same. There are many people in the society that
are not educated enough and they do not understand the usefulness of these policies. As a
result it becomes tough to make them adopt the policies so that they can take precautions
with respect to HIV AIDS. It is necessary to ensure that people are aware about these

policies with the help of an effective communication tools that makes the people aware
about the policies with the help of an understandable language.
 Lack of communication:- Some times lack of communication becomes the reason that
implementation of policy related to HIV AIDS get fails. It people are not getting
communicated with respect to these policies, they will not be able to adopt the same. It is
therefore very important to make each and every individual aware about these policies so
that they can understand its importance and take proper measures related to HIV AIDS
that is written in the policies(Blando & et.al., 2015).
 Setbacks:- There are many results both positive and negative while implementing the
policies. The major barriers in implementation of policies is that if challenges are not
identified before implementation of policies than it may result in some negative aspects.
It is therefore very important to identify the results of brining these changes. It is very
important to be well prepared with respective to the changes that will be coming while
implementing these policies (Kadu & Stolee, 2015).
Economic, political and social factors influenced development of HIV/AIDS minimizing policy
Social factors present essential set of influences on people behaviour, it influenced on
development of HIV minimizing policy that helps to prevent people from serious or harmful
diseases. In many regions, social problems increase risk of HIV and make barriers in
development of policy (Baum & Fisher, 2014). Most of people does not allow females in their
houses go out for medical purpose, they wants to take treatment through female doctors rather
than male. It impacts on decision making procedure and make it difficult to tackle effectively.
According to their religious and beliefs females only receive health care treatments by females
doctors because it is safe. It influenced negatively in policy development procedure, in which
management need to make some changes according to people concern. People behaviour towards
this process is not appropriate, they cannot be able to understand the importance of policy
development that influence the overall activity. Lifestyles of local people is another social factor
that affects development of HIV minimising policy. Some people believes that they need to take
the best treatment which makes their life happy. They understand the significant of this policy
because it helps to prevent their life from harm. Individual show their interest for implementation
and development of AIDS/HIV policy they wants to reduce chance of getting harm and decrease

the level of HIV. Most of the people in society or community belongs to good family
background, where they aware about this disease and known who to prevent themselves.
Economic factors also influenced HIV/ADIS policy development, most of the people in
community are uneducated they cannot be able to prevent themselves from HIV which is one of
the most dangerous and harmful disease that affects on longer period of time upon human life.
Lack of education can results increase illiteracy rate, it means that without understand and
learning people are unable to take treatment (Marmot & Allen, 2014). They need to proper
education and good knowledge about HIV policy which makes them able to used it in their life
and secure from this disease. Low income rate of individual is another economic factor which
make difficulties in development of HIV or AIDS policy. People do not have good income
sources as they are unable to take appropriate treatments and pay high fee in hospitals. Low
income rate is major concern in which management take decision according to it before
developing in particular nations for betterment of human life's. People with less eduction level do
not understand the importance of health care policy. Relationship between education and heath is
quite effective, without education no one can be able to understood how to prevent health from
serious disease. According to policy, administration department provide low cost medical
treatments with good quality which is fixed in budgets of low income rate people. Due to low
education level, most of the adults face serious issues in their health. Understanding the benefits
of education is integral part to reduce risk of HIV and support in development of policy.
Political factors impact on HIV/AIDS minimizing policy development in Australia, HIV
affects society in order to prevent from this harmful disease government develop some strategies
in which they wants to provide equal and fair treatments to people living with AIDS or HIV
since for longer. According to Australian eighth national HIV strategy health care professionals
provide the best treatment to every one. These national strategy is developed with important
contribution from medical professionals, community stakeholders, territory and state health
departments etc. it clearly determines priority actions file for Australian ongoing HIV/ AIDS
response. This strategy is sets upon ambitious targets to increase proportion of individual
diagnosed with HIV on treatment to 95%. government give their supports to NGOs for gathering
data about level of HIV in society (.Williams, Priest & Anderson, 2016). They implement new
policies and give equal right to people for taking the best treatments which is beneficial for them

as well as entire society. It means that political factors positively influenced in development of
this policy and give contribution for implementing it effectively in nation.
Main actions included in supporting for and influencing policy in context of HIV
HIV policy is influenced by different factors, interest of group, support of non
government organizations and technological changes are the main factors involved in affecting
and advocating policy. Kirby institutes play vital role in support of developing HIV policy, as
they gather more information and conduct medical research based on HIV and other harmful
diseases. It is medical research company attached with University of new south Wales, their
primary work related to the population health, coordination of nation surveillance programs,
epidemiological research, behavioural and clinical investigation. They provide full supports for
implementing policy, their team of people gather information about health condition of people,
they make plan for improving their life's. Their research work is conducted in partnerships with
societies most affected by epidemics. They work in their own laboratories where focused on
finding the most appropriate and fining ways to control HIV infections, professionals developed
new therapies which is quite beneficial in minimizing HIV/AIDS. Outside of workplace they
cater critical leadership to decision takers in Australian on most efficient, sustainable, effective
strategies to address deadly symptoms of HIV. Their whole research increasingly taken on
regional centring, they develop collaboration programs in many nations that have include
training health employees, health investigation in Asia Pacific region. In laboratories, they
experiment new things and find out the best ways to minimize HIV risk. Highly qualified
professors in this company leads a team of people and conduct HIV research more than three
decades for improving the living standards of people.
In society most of the people show concern towards development and implementation of
HIV policy (Berkman, Kawachi & Glymour, 2014). They think that it is one of the best way to
prevent individual from harm and safe their life's. Group of many peoples, are able to understand
the benefits of this policy, they spread information in society or community regarding this as it
helps to generate more awareness.
Anti retroviral therapy is one of the best technology used in HIV treatments, it is operated
by professional to provide HIV treatments. It is recommended to every one who has HIV, it
helps to patients with AIDS or HIV live longer healthier lives and reduce risk of this harmful
diseases. Effective antiretroviral theory or treatment is very essential interventions in term of

preventing and improving longevity or opportunistic infection in people with human
immunodeficiency virus.
Government organization also supports and influence policy as they provide healthcare
treatments to people. Most of the firms offer the free cost services, take care homeless people
and provide health care services to them.
CONCLUSION-
The research conducted in the report presented above helps in concluding that this is an
extremely important issue which was dealt by the Australian government with utmost efficiency.
Further it was analysed in the report that what are the current statistics pertaining to the HIV/
AIDS and its growth in Australia and whether it has been controlled or not. This report
concluded that after the epidemic of HIV broke in Australia, the government was quick to adopt
and implement a variety of schemes that altogether helped in educating the people and
developing their mind-set regarding the stigma that surrounded this disease by educating them.
This was followed by the analysis of various factors involved in policy making in Australia and
its impact in implementation and monitoring of the factors. Finally this report also identified and
analysed the various barriers that are associated with implementation of the policy in Australia
and making people aware about it.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Baum, F., & Fisher, M. (2014). Why behavioural health promotion endures despite its failure to
reduce health inequities. Sociology of health & illness. 36(2). 213-225.
Berkman, L. F., Kawachi, I., & Glymour, M. M. (Eds.). (2014). Social epidemiology. Oxford
University Press.
Blando, J. & et.al., (2015). Barriers to effective implementation of programs for the prevention of
workplace violence in hospitals. Online journal of issues in nursing. 20(1).
Chan, D. and et.al., 2015. The rise of targeted HIV oral rapid testing in Australia. Medical
Journal of Australia, 202(5). pp.251-254.
Jin, F. and et.al., 2019. Incidence and time trends of anal cancer among people living with HIV in
Australia. Aids, 33(8). pp.1361-1368.
Kadu, M. K., & Stolee, P. (2015). Facilitators and barriers of implementing the chronic care
model in primary care: a systematic review. BMC family practice. 16(1). 12.
Marmot, M., & Allen, J. J. (2014). Social determinants of health equity.
Martinello, M. and et.al., 2018. Moving Towards HCV Elimination Among People Living with
HIV in Australia: Analysis of the CEASE Prospective Cohort Study.
Moore, L & et.al., (2017). Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of person‐centred care
in different healthcare contexts. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences. 31(4). 662-
673.
Power, J. and et.al., 2017. Use of antiretroviral treatment among people living with HIV in
Australia between 1997 and 2012. AIDS care, 29(1). pp.61-66.
Williams, D. R., Priest, N., & Anderson, N. B. (2016). Understanding associations among race,
socioeconomic status, and health: Patterns and prospects. Health Psychology. 35(4). 407.
Online
HIV diagnoses in Australia hit 18-year low, but there is still a way go. 2018. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2019-07-03/hiv-rates-in-australia-hit-18-
year-low/11271662>
HIV statistics in Australia. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.hivmediaguide.org.au/hiv-in-australia/hiv-statistics-australia/>
HIV Statistics. 2017. [Online]. Available through: < https://www.afao.org.au/about-hiv/hiv-
statistics/>
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