Carriers of HIV can understand what sufferers of leprosy endured in times past, and most of that suffering arose from misunderstanding. Leprosy was once so feared that sufferers of the disease were banished to colonies or forced to walk about crying “Unclean!” to avoid all contact with non-infected people. They were regarded as filthy and were given up for dead.
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But the rate of transmission and the number of deaths from the disease in B.C. has dropped dramatically over the past several years. B.C. has been a leader in the field – Dr. Julio Montaner, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia and one of the world’s leading HIV/AIDS experts, had a role in developing the retroviral therapy. Thanks to a drug regimen developed by B.C. Women’s Hospital researchers, no HIV-positive babies have been born in the past 15 years to HIV-positive mothers who underwent the full treatment.
Times Colonist
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