Fernando

Led by researchers at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE), with the help of many co-investigators and collaborators, the SHAPE Study aims to determine if the scale up of HIV testing and treatment through the province’s STOP HIV/AIDS¨ Program is able to address pervasive inequities in treatment access, uptake and success among persons living with HIV.

Daily cannabis use may lower HIV viral loads, suggest remarkable findings from a relatively new field of research. The BC-CfE study, led by Research Scientist Dr. M-J Milloy, is believed to be the first to describe a possible beneficial effect for cannabinoids – such as marijuana – on HIV disease progression among humans.

Kiffer Card is a Research Assistant in the BC-CfE’s Epidemiology and Population Health program, working on the Momentum Health Study. The study looks to gain insight on the sexual health of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men within Greater Vancouver.

This World AIDS Day, we honour the many faces and stories of HIV and AIDS in our province. Learn about how HIV, now transformed into a chronic manageable condition through treatment, continues to affect communities in BC. There have been many triumphs and lessons learned. Still, persistent challenges remain in order to reach an end of AIDS.

Elder Robert Price from the Snuneymuxw and Cowichan First Nations has worked tirelessly over the past three decades to educate and raise awareness about issues affecting First Nations people in a positive, informative, and productive manner. She does this by working as a First Nations educator, sharing her traditional knowledge in schools, within the community, and with First Nations people.

Denise Becker Wozniak was unaware that she was living with HIV until she gave birth to a baby girl, Katie, who was six months old when diagnosed with the virus and died three months later.

Today, most young gay men living in Canada have not experienced the trauma of the early years of the HIV epidemic. Through advances in treatment and technology, HIV is now seen as a more of a manageable chronic disease. Within this context, the message of prevention and treatment is perhaps even more critical.

Treatment as Prevention¨ is based on the concept, pioneered by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE), all those diagnosed with HIV should be provided full and immediate access to HIV antiretrovirals. On sustained treatment and care, a person living with HIV experiences improved quality of life and longevity. On treatment, their viral load rapidly decreases and eventually reaches undetectable levels, greatly reducing the likelihood they will transmit HIV.