B.C. is the only province where the rate of new HIV infections is falling steadily and markedly. B.C. is also the only province that offers highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) free of charge and aggressively promotes its use.
Coincidence? Not at all.
New research published in Wednesday’s edition of the medical journal Public Library of Science One shows that for every 10-per-cent increase in the number of HIV-positive patients taking HAART, new HIV diagnoses fell 8 per cent – pretty close to a perfect correlation.
hese are some of the most compelling data to date demonstrating the soundness of the “treatment as prevention” theory, an approach conceived at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS and now being embraced worldwide.
Treatment as prevention – or TaP for short, because in the world of HIV-AIDS, acronyms are de rigeur – is so successful, from Zimbabwe to Abbottsford, that policy-makers now talk openly about the possibility of freezing the epidemic in its tracks and creating an AIDS-free generation.
As is too often the case though, Canadians are slow to embrace Canadian innovation.