On May 27th, 2014, eight years ago today, the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Providence Health Care closed the dedicated HIV/AIDS inpatient unit at St. Paul’s Hospital, known as ward 10C, and repurposed it into an urban health unit. This was a historic landmark, as Vancouver became the first city in the world to repurpose its AIDS ward
Opened in 1997, ward 10C saw an average of one AIDS-related death every day at the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, with about 400 patients admitted annually. But thanks to the discovery of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) by Dr. Julio Montaner and his team at the BC-CfE, people living with HIV are now able to live long and healthy lives, and are unable to transmit HIV when virally suppressed. HAART, the Treatment as Prevention¨ strategy, and the Seek and Treat for Optimal Prevention of HIV/AIDS (STOP HIV/AIDS) program, have transformed HIV/AIDS in BC from a fatal disease to one that is now a manageable chronic illness.
Today, the Urban Health Acute Care Unit at St. Paul’s Hospital, which replaced the dedicated HIV/AIDS inpatient unit, continues to provide care for those living with HIV/AIDS, but it also delivers acute hospital care for patients with infectious diseases, addiction, and associated chronic/acute illnesses. Thankfully, there is no longer a need for dedicated ward for HIV/AIDS as the number of new HIV cases in BC continues to decline.