North Queensland Travellers' Project .

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‘Taking risks? Use condoms and take a test’

Throughout 08/09, FPQ worked on development of a campaign to inform Cairns’ locals that Australian travellers’ relaxed attitudes to sexual safety may be placing them and other travellers at risk of exposure to sexually transmissible infections (STIs). As a ‘premier regional city’ and international gateway to and from Australia, FPQ, working with the ‘Travellers’ Project’ steering committee, launched a health promotion campaign to highlight the necessity for those travelling between Cairns and neighbouring countries with an identified higher prevalence of HIV to engage in safe sex practices.

The new campaign was developed after consultation between key business and health stakeholders to address a spike in the rates of sexually transmissible infections, most worryingly HIV, amongst local heterosexual males. The results of focus group testing were applied to develop specifically targeted educational materials for those travelling between Cairns and PNG.

The sexual health promotion campaign featured posters with the slogan, ‘Taking risks? Use condoms and take a test’, and advertising material that was placed in the inflight magazines of airlines flying out of Cairns.

Why North Queensland Travellers’ Project?

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• Many men travel to PNG because work conditions and lifestyle are fantastic but rates of HIV and other sexually transmissible infections (STIs) are much higher than in Australia.
• Around 1 in 50 people in PNG have HIV, and numbers are increasing (National Department of health and National AIDS Council Secretariat, PNG).
• HIV and other STIs are most often spread through unprotected sex.
• In PNG, equal numbers of men and women have HIV, and HIV is NOT confined to sex workers, men who have sex with men or drug users.
• In 2007, 20% of all new HIV cases in Cairns were men with sexual partners in PNG (2007, Queensland Health).
• Whoever you have sex with, the risk is real.
• The best way to protect yourself is to ALWAYS practice safe sex, whether you’re travelling or at home.

Where to take a test

FPQ clinics

• Brisbane
• Cairns
• Ipswich
• Rockhampton
• Toowoomba
• Townsville

For confidential information, advice and testing in Cairns, contact:

Cairns Sexual Health Service (The Doll’s House)
Phone: (07) 4050 6205
Cairns Base Hospital, The Esplanade, Cairns

Family Planning Queensland
Phone: (07) 4051 3788
Ground Floor, Solander Centre, 182 Grafton Street, Cairns

Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC)
Phone: (07) 4041 5451
290 Draper St, Cairns

Your local GP

For information on HIV and STI rates in different countries and tips on staying sexually healthy visit: www.sexinothercities.com.au

Media

• ‘HIV Spike in Travellers’ from The Cairns Post, 7 June 2008;
• Mediaportal report
• ‘Safe sex drive’ – The Cairns Post, 9 June 2009;
• ‘Risky sex targeted in fight to cut diseases’ – The Cairns Post, 10 June 2009.

Media releases

• June 2009 - Keep it covered Cairns
• June 2008 - Cairns travellers at risk of sexual infections