All you need to know about managing HIV in Australia
HIV Management in Australasia is a ‘living resource’ for health practitioners managing people with HIV infection in Australia and neighbouring countries. It provides information on the basic principles of preventing, diagnosing and managing HIV-associated disease. Readers should consult expert texts and/or specialist medical practitioners to obtain more detailed information about HIV disease pathogenesis or the diagnosis and management of HIV-associated disease.
This on-line clinical guide is a flagship resource of the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine (ASHM). It is used as a resource for many of the ASHM training and accreditation courses, including the HIV Prescriber Course and supports a number of on-line and face-to-face training modules. It is also freely available as an everyday resource for clinicians managing patients with HIV or learning about HIV management.
The ASHM HIV Management in Australia website is a reformatting of the ‘Green Monograph’ and the on-line version of that publication, which have served Australian health practitioners so well over many years. Australia has always had a very dedicated, knowledgeable and productive HIV Medicine workforce and it is important that the knowledge and expertise is made available to those entering the workforce in the future.
The primary aim of the new website is to assist in the education, training and day-to-day practice of health practitioners involved in assessing and managing people with HIV infection in Australia and neighbouring countries. Given the changing face of HIV Medicine over the last decade, the content of the new website has been revised and updated to put more of a focus on primary health care and non-specialist hospital care. It is intended for it to be a ‘living resource’ with regular updates of content, if needed. Ownership by, and feedback from, Australian healthcare practitioners delivering services to people with HIV infection is expected and encouraged.
I am extremely grateful to the many contributors who have voluntarily given their time to provide content for the website.
Martyn French, honorary editor, 5/11/2019
Emeritus Professor, UWA Medical School and School of Biomedical Sciences
The nursing and midwifery section of ASHM’s HIV Management in Australia – a guide for clinical care, was published for the first time in 2016, when Levinia Crooks, ASHM’s CEO at the time, recognised the importance and benefits of including the voices and perspectives of nurses and midwives within the guide and invited me to coordinate its development. The section was revised in 2019 and has now been updated in 2024.
In this section, expert HIV, sexual health, and public health nurses from around Australia present a nursing and midwifery perspective on caring for people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the Australian context.
Each section provides a summary of a topic, expands on key principles and provides a guide for practice, drawing from current research evidence. There are cross-references to other nursing and/or medical sections of the guide where relevant. This section is unique in its focus on nursing, and nurses’ and midwives’ roles in caring for people with HIV from diverse backgrounds from point of diagnosis to end-of-life, and with HIV-related conditions and complications. It addresses nurses’ and midwives’ roles in HIV education, prevention, and health promotion. Nursing ethics, cultural safety, and the importance of professional supervision for those working in the HIV sector and with members of key affected populations are critically discussed. This edition includes a new section on Mpox and COVID-19. The authors include links to clinical resources and to nursing, midwifery, and peer-based organisations.
We hope that this resource will be a fundamental guide for nurses and midwives working in the HIV, sexual health, and blood-borne virus sector, across all settings. It will also be useful for those working in other areas of nursing and midwifery who may simply wish to access a particular topic, and for nursing, midwifery, and healthcare students. This is a living resource, so we expect and encourage feedback from the sector to enable regular revision.
Where new authors have updated topics, we acknowledge previous authors and contributors. Geraldine Dunne kindly revised and updated the midwifery and paediatric sections, following the death of our colleague, much respected nurse and midwife author Karen Blyth. Daniel Sankar wrote the new section on MPox and COVID-19 in the context of HIV. Cherie Bennett updated the sections on New diagnosis and Biomedical prevention originally written by John McAllister, who retired after a lifelong HIV nursing career. Karyn Gellie updated the section on Health promotion when previous authors were unavailable.
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the nurse and midwife authors. I thank those who provided additional peer review – Judy Frecker, Karyn Gellie, and Denise Cummins. All were generous with their time and expertise to contribute to the HIV Management Guide for Clinical Care – Nurses and Midwives 2024 edition.
Dr Elizabeth Crock AM, Honorary Editor
HIV Nurse Practitioner, AACRN
Bolton Clarke HIV Program
Homeless Persons Program, Melbourne, Victoria