‘The strategy that we pioneered in B.C. … has been extremely successful,’ says Dr. Julio Montaner
The annual number of new HIV cases diagnosed in B.C. is expected to hit a new record low this year, in more than two decades of record-keeping, said HIV/AIDS research pioneer Dr. Julio Montaner.
The lowest number to date was 2017, when 182 people in B.C. were newly diagnosed with HIV. Last year it was slightly up, at 199 people – but still a far cry from the epidemic’s peak in the 1990s, when in 1996 more than 700 people were diagnosed in the province.
Sunday, on World AIDS Day, Montaner says 2019 is expected to be even lower.
“The strategy that we pioneered in B.C., of Treatment as Prevention … has been extremely successful,” said Montaner, executive director and physician-in-chief for the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.
In a release, Health Minister Adrian Dix said that strategy has become the “world’s gold standard to profoundly reduce HIV transmission, and transition the crisis from a serious epidemic to a manageable chronic disease.”