A hugely important World AIDS Day announcement from new federal Health Minister Jane Philpott went virtually noticed and unreported – until PositiveLite.com was tipped off. How could this happen? Bob Leahy reports.
It’s the news we have all been waiting for. But when it came it went virtually unnoticed.
“Canada endorses the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) global HIV treatment targets – known as the 90-90-90 targets. These global targets call for 90% of people living with HIV to know their status, 90% of all people diagnosed with HIV to be on treatment, and 90% of people on treatment to successfully manage their infection by 2020. Achieving these goals will help get the world on track to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.”
That major national partners like CATIE and the Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) knew nothing of it until PositiveLite.com broke the news yesterday came as a shock. Is this an indictment of the communication channels that exist between the federal government and the HIV community, a one-off communications blunder or what? The answers are unclear. But how the news about the endorsement of 90-90-90 became public knowledge is fascinating.
Here’s how the story unfolded.
On December 1 2015, World AIDS Day, Minister Philpott visited the AIDS Committee of Ottawa (ACO) to join in a live CBC TV broadcast on the 6pm local news. ACO staff and volunteers wearing bright red scarves were in the background. It was a happy occasion, a significant event for a Minister to drop in at a local AIDS Service Organization and meet staff, volunteers and people living with HIV. You can view a tape of the broadcast here; the interview begins at 30:34.
In the interview an eloquent and informed Minister praises the work of the community-based AIDS movement. Asked about a national AIDS strategy she says “we have not made a specific commitment to a national AIDS strategy”. Significantly she mentions 90-90-90 as a UN-AIDS initiative but gives no indication that the government of Canada has endorsed this strategy. PositiveIte.com has confirmed with ACO ED Khaled Salam that no commitment on 90-90-90 was conveyed during the Minister’s visit.
At about the same time as this television interview was taking place, the federal government’s press office in Ottawa released a World AIDS Day announcement that contained the historic paragraph quoted above. But – and the reasons are uncertain – it seemed to go largely unnoticed.
Dr. Julio Montaner of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, himself the world’s leading proponent of treatment as prevention and an architect of 90-90-90, noticed though. In fact he is mentioned in the government’s announcement.
“Canada has provided global leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including the ground-breaking work of Dr. Julio Montaner and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and countless others.”
Enter Dr. Julio Montaner
On December 7 Montaner emailed me (we have talked many times in the past) drawing my attention to the World AIDS Day announcement – I had not seen it previously – saying that although he was delighted with the new federal government’s approach and this news in particular, the story about 90-90-90 being endorsed, and the efforts behind it, have not received the attention he thinks they deserve.