About 16,000 Canadians are living with HIV and don’t know it, according to statistics from Canada’s Public Health Agency (PHAC).
That figure has prompted health experts to call for increased testing and more proactive treatment to reach people who haven’t been diagnosed and prevent them from spreading the illness to others.
Dec. 1 marks World AIDS Day. Earlier this year, the World Health Organization embraced a made-in-Canada approach to tackling HIV/AIDS. But Canada has yet to adopt treatment-as-prevention outside British Columbia.
It starts with changing the way people view HIV screening and their level of risk, says Laurie Edmiston, executive director of the HIV resource website CATIE.
“We need to make testing more accessible and less intimidating for people,” Edmiston told Global News.
“Right now people get tested because they identify that they have been at risk. … We need to reach this pretty significant population of people who are living HIV and don’t know it.”