Māori are at higher risk of contracting HIV, according to the latest available data.
Clive Aspin, a public health researcher on HIV Māori and Indigenous health at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, says there was a 30 percent drop in new HIV diagnoses last year, based on the highest level of testing for 20 years in Aotearoa.
Of the 97 diagnosed cases, 82 were men, 14 were women – and a higher than expected proportion of those turned out to be Māori.
“It’s the first time we’ve seen such high rates, and they haven’t come out of nowhere. And they indicate that there’s probably a trend that will go into the future. So we know that Maori make up 17 percent of the population but here we’re seeing 20 percent of new infections are being reported among Maori, so,there’s a cause for concern there,” Dr Aspin says,
Early testing for those at risk is vital, because some HIV carriers may be unaware of it until they see symptoms – and by then they may have spread it to many other people.
