Mr Abbott said the health department had received news of an increase in HIV infections and asked the Ministerial Advisory Council to consider the figures and to make some recommendations.

His comments follow calls for another AIDS campaign to teach young people of the dangers of unsafe sex and sharing needles amid fears Australians are becoming complacent about the risk of HIV.

"People have got into a sense of very false security that the (issue) was somehow 20 years ago and nothing could be further from the truth," Mr Bowtell said.

The grim reaper advertisement, which featured humans as bowling pins being knocked down by a skeletal grim reaper, was launched on television screens 20 years ago today.

Public health authorities believe tens of thousands more Australians would have died without the campaign, which raised awareness that AIDS was not just a gay disease.

But the advertisement still received criticism for scaring heterosexuals when HIV in Australia remains a disease largely contracted by homosexual men and injecting drug users.

"The important thing is to ensure that people in the affected groups know that it's important to act in ways that are likely to keep them safe."

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