Using HIV notification data to identify priority migrant groups for HIV prevention, New South Wales, 2000-2008

Non-Australian-born people comprise a third of HIV notifications in Australia. With increasing numbers of immigrants in Australia, public health and health promotion programs will need to adapt to the emerging epidemic of HIV among people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. This study uses HIV notification data to compare Australian-born and non-Australian-born cases in New South Wales and aims to determine if income of source country is useful in identifying high priority CALD groups. Notified cases of newly diagnosed HIV between 2000 and 2008 in New South Wales were divided into Australian-born, persons born in high-income countries and persons born in middle and low-income countries based on World Bank classifications. These three groups were then compared to determine their risk factors for HIV infection. Of the 3,397 newly diagnosed HIV infections in New South Wales, 2,906 (86%) had a country of birth reported from 102 different countries. Cases born in high-income countries were similar to Australian-born cases; predominantly men reporting homosexual acquisition. Both these groups were different to cases born in middle and low-income countries; they were younger, more commonly female and reported heterosexual acquisition of HIV. Using income from source countries is useful as a model to better understand and target responses to HIV in non-Australian-born populations in New South Wales as it suggests that the public health and health promotion response in New South Wales and Australia should also focus on the priority communities drawn from low and middle income countries.