A country should always be aware of its shortfalls in public policy and never be complacent, but it should also be proud of its achievements when success can be demonstrated.

Having attended the 19th International AIDS conference in Washington DC last week, it was clear to me that Australia's bipartisan effort in preventing an HIV epidemic over these past few decades, which has pushed new infections down to about 1,000 annually, has placed Australia firmly on the medal podium.

While Hillary Clinton gave a rousing speech on Day 1 of the International AIDS conference, remarkable was the absence of any reference to the need to also address the risk of HIV among people who inject drugs in her nation.

Indeed, what is particularly obvious is how Australia's public health care system, backed up by strong political and civic leadership has put it well ahead of the USA where the HIV prevalence per capita is at least 5 times higher than ours.

Furthermore, among the 50,000 or so new cases continuing to occur in America every year, about 9 per cent are among those who inject drugs compared to only 1 per cent (of the 1,000) in Australia today.