IntroductionAustralia recorded its first case of COVID-19 in late January 2020. On 22P March 2020, amid increasing daily case numbers, the Australian Government implemented lockdown restrictions to help ‘flatten the curve’. Our study aimed to understand the impact of lockdown restrictions on sexual and reproductive health. Here we focus on sexual practices.MethodsAn online survey was open from the 23PP April 2020 to 11P May 2020. Participants were recruited online via social media and other networks and were asked to report on their sexual practices in 2019 and during lockdown. Logistic regression was used to calculate the difference (diff) (including 95% CIs) in the proportion of sex practices between time periods.ResultsOf the 1187 who commenced the survey, 965 (81.3%) completed it. Overall, 70% were female and 66.3% were aged 18–29 years. Most (53.5%) reported less sex during lockdown than in 2019. Compared with 2019, participants were more likely to report sex with a spouse (35.3% vs 41.7%; diff=6.4%; 95% CI 3.6 to 9.2) and less likely to report sex with a girl/boyfriend (45.1% vs 41.8%; diff=−3.3%; 95% CI −7.0 to -0.4) or with casual hook-up (31.4% vs 7.8%; 95% CI −26.9 to -19.8). Solo sex activities increased; 14.6% (123/840) reported using sex toys more often and 26.0% (218/838) reported masturbating more often. Dating app use decreased during lockdown compared with 2019 (42.1% vs 27.3%; diff= −14.8%; 95% CI −17.6 to -11.9). Using dating apps for chatting/texting (89.8% vs 94.5%; diff=4.7%; 95% CI 1.0 to 8.5) and for setting up virtual dates (2.6% vs 17.2%; diff=14.6%; 95% CI 10.1 to 19.2) increased during lockdown.ConclusionAlthough significant declines in sexual activity during lockdown were reported, people did not completely stop engaging in sexual activities, highlighting the importance of ensuring availability of normal sexual and reproductive health services during global emergencies.

Objective: To estimate variation between small areas in the levels of walking, cycling, jogging, and swimming and overall physical activity and the importance of area level socioeconomic disadvantage in predicting physical activity participation. Methods: All census collector districts (CCDs) in the 20 innermost local government areas in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia, were identified and ranked by the percentage of low income households (,$400/ week) living in the CCD. Fifty CCDs were randomly selected from the least, middle, and most disadvantaged septiles of the ranked CCDs and 2349 residents (58.7% participation rate) participated in a cross sectional postal survey about physical activity. Multilevel logistic regression (adjusted for extrabinomial variation) was used to estimate area level variation in walking, cycling, jogging, and swimming and in overall physical activity participation, and the importance of area level socioeconomic disadvantage in predicting physical activity participation. Results: There were significant variations between CCDs in all activities and in overall physical participation in age and sex adjusted models; however, after adjustment for individual SES (income, occupation, education) and area level socioeconomic disadvantage, significant differences remained only for walking (p = 0.004), cycling (p = 0.003), and swimming (p = 0.024). Living in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas was associated with a decreased likelihood of jogging and of having overall physical activity levels that were sufficiently active for health; these effects remained after adjustment for individual socioeconomic status (sufficiently active: OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.90 and jogging: OR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.51 to 0.94). Conclusion: These research findings support the need to focus on improving local environments to increase physical activity participation.

Based on a range of indicators there was no evidence that the campaign increased HIV/STI testing. These findings highlight the importance of evaluating public health campaigns to assess their impact to ensure that they are modified if no impact is identified.

There is poor adherence to national guidelines that recommend regular re-testing of MSM for STIs, particularly among those at higher risk who require more frequent testing. Clinical strategies are urgently needed to encourage more frequent HIV/STI testing among MSM, especially in the higher risk subgroup.

We used logistic regression to assess effectiveness of primaquine as Plasmodium vivax anti-relapse therapy using data extracted from studies of P. vivax relapses in Brazil, India, and Thailand. The risk of relapse in Thailand was 10 times that in India and twice that in Brazil. In comparison with no primaquine treatment, the risk of relapse decreased by approximately 80% for a total adult primaquine regimen of 210 mg and by > or =95% for regimens of 315 mg and 420 mg. In addition, we used logistic regression to estimate the risk of P. vivax relapse according to weight-based primaquine dose using data from case studies. There was a three-fold increase in the likelihood of successful treatment of each additional milligram of primaquine per kilogram of body weight. Tailoring primaquine therapy to a region requires consideration of factors including body weight, natural relapse rates, and local response to primaquine.

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Our results call for HIV prevention to target high-risk MSM, including men with a recent syphilis diagnosis or a high numbers of partners, men who have unprotected anal sex with casual partners and men in serodiscordant relationships. The HIV incidence estimate will provide a baseline to enable public health officials to measure the effectiveness of future strategies.