Australian
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This clip shows an interview with 8-year-old Troy about his illness, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a form of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). He is shown in close-up, answering questions from an unseen female interviewer. Troy is first asked what he knows about AIDS and then if he knows why he has AIDS. The camera remains stationary throughout.

Educational value points

• Troy gives an account of his personal experience of AIDS in Australia in 1993, when the worldwide estimated number of AIDS cases was 2.5 million and the number of AIDS diagnoses in Australia was to peak at 953 cases the following year. Life expectancy following diagnosis of AIDS at this time was 17 months. From 1995 onwards the availability of antiretroviral therapy was to greatly increase the life expectancy prospects of AIDS sufferers in those countries where it was available.

• The filmmakers have chosen to explore a social and medical issue using the form of the 'documentary biography’, focusing on the plight of a child infected with AIDS in the womb. Troy’s clear-sighted and unsentimental account adds poignancy to the factual information provided. In this segment the camera’s eye is unwavering with nothing distracting the viewer from their direct relationship with the subject.

• A Kid Called Troy investigates a lesser-known victim of AIDS, the infected child. At the end of 2005, an estimated 2.3 million children around the world under the age of 15 were HIV positive. Most of these children were already infected at birth, which is still the case for most instances of AIDS in children. Until 1995 the number of children in Australia infected by the HIV virus was very low, but by 2003 there were 3,000 children identified as having the virus. Worldwide more than 570,000 children died of AIDS in 2005, and in 2006 it is estimated that 2 million children younger than 15 are infected with the virus in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Troy developed AIDS through perinatal transmission of HIV, which can occur during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding. The risks to the unborn child of an HIV-positive pregnant woman were not widely known in the 1980s, nor was suitable effective treatment available for the woman. However, research emerged in 1994 concerning the efficacy of the drug AZT in reducing the chance of HIV transmission to the child, and drug therapy now reduces the risk of such transmission from 25 per cent to 2 per cent. Giving birth by caesarean section reduces the risk still further to 1 per cent.

• Transmission of HIV through heterosexual sex, such as occurred in this case, was relatively uncommon in the 1980s and 90s. In 1993, the year that this film was made, more than 90 per cent of those infected in Australia were men, predominantly as a result of male-to-male sexual contact. By 2006, however, almost half the adults infected with HIV worldwide were women, most of whom were infected through heterosexual sex. Women are about twice as likely to become infected with HIV from men as men are from women.

• Troy’s clear understanding about the cause of his condition is in marked contrast to misconceptions concerning AIDS that have been common since its identification in 1981. The identification of AIDS among the 'gay’ community in the 1980s led to the false belief that the sole source of infection was homosexual sex. It was later identified and branded as a disease of injecting drug users, specifically via the practice of needle-sharing. Fear of infection and ignorance gave rise to beliefs that transmission could come from touching, hugging or kissing an infected person. Currently many people mistakenly believe that antiretroviral drug therapy actually cures the illness. In the clip, Troy is trying to refute some of the misconceptions about the disease prevalent at the time.

• Troy, who died aged 8 shortly after the documentary was made, was the first HIV-positive child accepted into Australia’s public education system.

• Troy’s mother Suzi Lovegrove was the subject of a separate documentary about the subject of HIV/AIDS called Suzi’s Story.

This clip starts approximately 2 hours 3 minutes into the documentary.

This clip shows an interview with 8-year-old Troy about his illness, AIDS. He is shown in close-up, answering questions from an unseen female interviewer. The camera remains stationary throughout.
Interviewer Tell me what you know about AIDS.

Troy I just know that, um, one day I might die, like (inaudible). I know that you can’t get it by touching a hand, hugging, um, shaking hands and that sort of stuff.

Interviewer Do you know why you have AIDS?

Troy Yes. Um…around seven or six years before my Dad met, she had sex with another man that had AIDS and the man passed on to her. When I was in her vagina, she accidentally passed it on to me. But she never knew.