Maori are not over-represented among HIV infections in New Zealand, says the AIDS Epidemiology Group, with the largest proportion of new infections still among men who have sex with men. The AIDS Epidemiology Group was responding to findings by Auckland researcher, academic and former AIDS Foundation board chair Dr Clive Aspin. These findings were presented at the Pan Pacific AIDS Conference in Auckland today. Aspin has reached the conclusion from their data that Maori have an increased risk of HIV infection. "Gay men, or men who have sex with men – that's the major proportion of new infections in New Zealand," says Epidemiology Group spokesperson Dr Charlotte Paul. "For that group, the rates amongst Maori are very similar to the rates among non-Maori." Dr Aspin says that Maori rates of AIDS diagnois "have hovered around 15 to 20%, well above the 14% population threshold." While these percentage figures are both accurate and worrying for the AIDS Epidemiology Group, Dr Paul says they are based on very small numbers, particularly the figures Dr Aspin presented which relate to Maori women. "Since 1996 we've been looking at the people who've had infection within New Zealand via heterosexual transmission, which is actually quite small numbers," she says. "From 1996 there've only been 8 Maori women diagnosed with HIV." Although the AIDS Epidemiology Group says it's quite concerned about the disproportionality, Dr Paul doesn't agree that it is a major problem yet to be addressed. “There could be some increase in heterosexual transmission that we don't know about, and hasn't been detected through testing,” she says. "We should find that out, because we're actually doing an HIV prevalence survey at the moment which will give us that answer.” Dr Aspin also said there was no reason to believe that Maori weren't being under-represented or misclassified in HIV statistics. While Dr Paul acknowledges this may be a small problem, she again doesn't see it as a major one. “We actually collect information quite specifically on ethnicity,” she says. “We've used a method where people are able to give their own ethnicity, and also could name more than one ethnic group. There's been a lot of concern for a long time in New Zealand about the collection of ethnic data, but it seems to have been improved.” This is not the first time Dr Aspin has presented controversial interpretations of data at an international conference. Earlier this year, while still chair of the AIDS Foundation board, Dr Aspin appeared at a sexual identity conference in Mexico. He used an out-of-context quote from the GayNZ.com message board to argue a point about racism against Maori in New Zealand's gay community. Dr Aspin omitted the portion of the quote which identified the author was a Maori man opposed to a board proposal to set aside 50% of the board seats for Maori. Dr Aspin today introduced his presentation by thanking conference organisers for letting him speak, as he had earlier in the year been “asked to resign as chair of the board of the NZ AIDS Foundation because of comments I made about racism in the gay community”. He also said we should beware the agendas of those who use terms like "political correctness" and "quota systems".
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 26th October 2005 - 12:00pm