Council Considers Condom Machines To Counter Aids

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday October 20, 1986

By TRACEY AUBIN, Civic Reporter

Sydney City Council will consider installing condom-vending machines in lavatories under its control and supporting the provision of clean, disposable syringes to intravenous drug users.

Details of the counter-AIDS measures, proposed by Alderman Brian McGahen(Independents' Alliance), will be circulated to all aldermen this week and a report will be considered by council's health committee at a later meeting.

According to Alderman McGahen, more than half the cases of AIDS diagnosed in Australia had come from the Sydney area. "The widespread use of condoms in casual sexual activity and amongst the high-risk groups is the most effective way to prevent sexual transmission," Alderman McGahen told the health committee last night.

"Likewise, ending the sharing of needles by intravenous drug users is the single most important step that can slow the spread by blood-to-blood transmission."

Alderman McGahen has also proposed anti-discriminatory measures for people with AIDS.

Under his proposal, Meals on Wheels, child care services, swimming pools and libraries would be available to AIDS carriers on the basis that there was no scientific reason to reject their access.

Alderman McGahen also called for an immediate large increase in the number of beds in special AIDS units, the provision of a hospice to care for people with AIDS and a health education program.

Victorian health authorities have moved to head off what they fear will be the next wave of AIDS by making sterile syringes readily available to drug users. The national AIDS task force has joined the pharmaceutical society in urging pharmacists not to baulk at selling the syringes to addicts (see Page 19).