During these uncertain and unprecedented times, the senior leadership of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) presented a webinar to inform and reassure its clients, staff, and stakeholders, their critical work, with only a few minor modifications, will continue during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Presented on March 25th, the webinar titled, “COVID-19, the BC-CfE Response”, was organized and led by BC-CfE Director of Clinical Education and Training Dr. Silvia Guillemi. Touching on key areas of service delivery, the panel included: BC-CfE Executive Director and Physician-in-Chief Dr. Julio Montaner, Clinical Professor with UBC’s Division of Infectious Diseases Dr. Peter Phillips, BC-CfE Laboratory Director, Dr. Zabrina Brumme, and BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) Senior Manager Dr. Junine Toy.
Dr. Julio Montaner opened the webinar, giving a high-level overview of what clients, healthcare providers, and prescribers can expect to see change during this global health emergency. Despite limited data, he said international research on COVID-19 indicates there appears to be no increased risk of the disease for people living with HIV provided they are being effectively treated with, and adhering to, antiretroviral therapy and have a consistently undetectable viral load.
He did however stress the need for everybody, regardless of whether or not they’re living with HIV, to adhere to all of the recommendations from health officials such as hand washing, social distancing, and staying at home as much as possible.
Dr. Peter Phillips followed by comparing and contrasting the current COVID-19 pandemic with other respiratory viral epidemics and pandemics. For those not closely following news of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Phillips showed how the most recent similar pandemic that the world has been through, the so-called “Spanish flu” of 1918 compares to COVID-19. More accurately labelled an H1N1 virus, this pandemic infected about 500 million people, about a third of the world’s population, and killed at least 50 million worldwide.
Thankfully, the death toll from COVID-19 is currently nowhere near that high. But Dr. Phillips was clear and unequivocal in saying our current pandemic has the potential to be that deadly if we don’t heed the warnings of health experts. In fact, data presented by Dr. Phillips showed that COVID-19 could be even deadlier than the Spanish flu, due to having a higher fatality and infectivity rate, and the degree of interconnectedness of the world today compared to 1918.
It wasn’t all a message of doom, Dr. Phillips said there are measures which can be taken by individuals, groups, and governments to stop the spread of COVID-19 including widespread adherence to the advice given by medical health officials to social distance.
Up next, Dr. Zabrina Brumme stressed the BC-CfE Laboratory’s precision medicine testing remains operational, but asked healthcare providers to restrict the number of tests requested and warned some results will be delayed up to a week due to processing delays of samples in the system. The lab will temporarily reduce the availability of non-essential precision medicine testing in order to ensure capacity for essential HIV testing urgently needed in clinical care. If non-essential testing is urgently required, the Lab will perform them but asks providers first contact the BC-CfE directly.
Dr. Junine Toy closed out the webinar assuring prescribers and clients the DTP and BC-CfE management have been proactively working to ensure an adequate supply of medication in the province. She provided an update on how the DTP is working with prescribers and clients to streamline the process from prescription to medication delivery.
The main goal of these changes is to ensure continuity of therapy while limiting time and exposure for those accessing medications and related healthcare appointments. This includes temporary adjustments to dispensing of longer supplies of medication and reduced non-essential routine viral load testing in virologically-suppressed clients on stable therapy.
Dr. Toy highlighted the desire for prescribers and clients to simplify medication prescription, preparation and pick-up. Wherever possible and if able, the DTP asks prescribers to direct prescriptions directly to the pharmacy in advance, clients to specify medication pick-up dates, and if sending a delegate (e.g. friend or family member), to provide their full name.
The full webinar can be reviewed at bit.ly/COVIDresponsewebinar, however as the situation and response to COVID-19 is constantly evolving, please refer to the BC-CfE website for the most up-to-date information: www.cfenet.ubc.ca.