7th Interscholastic Student HIV & Sexual Health Research Symposium 2021

Abstract

On Wednesday 23 June 2021 a one-day event was hosted by Auckland University of Technology’s (AUT) Child and Youth Health Research Centre (CYHRC) at South Campus, Manukau City. This annual event was initiated in 2014 and is a collaboration by researchers from AUT, University of Auckland and Massey University. It aims to provide an opportunity for postgraduate students with projects focusing on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Sexual Health to present their studies and to meet and network with other researchers with similar interests. This successful event incorporated much stimulating discussion with the oral presentations by postgraduate students; and there were 40 attendees (both face to face and online) from academic, NGO and public sectors, including New Zealand Aids Foundation (NZAF), District Health Boards, GP clinics. The presentations demonstrated a wide range of topics including HIV counselling programmes in India; blood donor policies among Gay and Bisexual Men in New Zealand; and the role of social media apps in providing sexual and reproductive health information for users. An innovation in 2021 was that of a plenary session at the end of the presentations providing a general forum for discussion based on the theme, 'HIV and Sexual Health in a Post Covid World. Key experts and students discussed their experiences led by a panel of four HIV/Sexual Health researchers. Indigenous Pacific perspectives were also shared along with policy directions and implications.  Key takeaways relevant within the post covid context were the need for more research support in the field of HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health and the impact of HIV/Sexual Health among vulnerable marginalised groups.   Here in this special section of vol 4 of Pacific Health, 2021, we present the abstracts from the oral presentations.