An Australian Research Council Discovery grant of $601k will provide researchers at La Trobe’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) and colleagues with the opportunity to examine the way that public policy - and the surrounding policy ecology - treats the ‘elimination’ of HIV.
Led by Dr Dean Murphy at ARCSHS, along with Professor Kane Race (The University of Sydney), Professor Andrew Gorman-Murray (Western Sydney University), Professor Edwina Wright (Monash University and Alfred Health) and Dr John Rule (National Association of People Living with HIV Australia (NAPWHA), the project will run from 2025 to 2027 – crucial years in the implementation of the UN’s policy goal of ending HIV as a public health threat by 2030.
Using a novel ‘policy ecology’ approach, the project will provide the first critical analysis of HIV ‘elimination’, and specifically the implementation of this policy in Australian settings.
Analysing media coverage, policies, health promotion materials, and qualitative interviews with stakeholders and people affected by HIV, the research will also explore the emerging strategy of identifying and promoting elimination in specific local or ‘micro’ settings.
Lead researcher Dr Dean Murphy said, “We’re very excited to have this opportunity to generate new knowledge about the local contexts and settings in which HIV elimination policy circulates, as these contexts are typically obscured in global public-health policy’s focus on numerical targets and metrics.”
NAPWHA’s Dr John Rule said, “This project provides an excellent opportunity to explore the ways in which narratives of elimination shape understandings of the epidemic, and also have an impact on lived experience, and in some cases may lead to increased stigmatisation or invisibility of people living with HIV.”
