As of the last week of August the number of people with active COVID-19 infections in BC is at a record high, and we’ve now passed more than 200 deaths since the pandemic began. BC’s total caseload is higher now than it was in March, when the province declared a state of emergency.

TransLink and BC Ferries implemented mandatory mask policies also, requiring all passengers to wear masks while on board. Next month, all of BC’s K-12 schools are set to reopen with a gradual, but full, return to in-class instruction for all students.

Despite the discouraging news of rising case counts, and the sometimes uncomfortable and stressful adaptations we’ve all had to make during this pandemic, the staff at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) continue their vital work in treatment, research, outreach, and promotion of Treatment as Prevention.

Per-SVR is a viral hepatitis study led by Dr. Kate Salters, a research scientist with the BC-CfE’s Epidemiology and Population Health program. Researchers in this multi-year study are working to learn more about the experiences of people, particularly those from highly marginalized populations, who have been treated with the new direct acting antiretroviral hepatitis C medications. Recruiting and research work on this study were paused due to the pandemic, but now, after approval from provincial authorities, and safely operating from our Hope to Health Centre on Powell Street, Per-SVR has resumed.

Thrive is a community-based research study focused on improving health outcomes among older adults living with HIV. Thrive researchers adapted to the pandemic and the project has received ethics approval to conduct phone interviews to accommodate physical distancing guidelines.

The Momentum/Engage Studies look at the sexual health of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in Greater Vancouver and has been active since 2012. The BC-CfE’s Dr. David Moore leads this work and, after modifying workspaces and practices to ensure compliance with the latest safety directives, the studies are set to restart soon.

COVID-19 has also changed aspects of the work done by the BC-CfE’s Drug Treatment Program. As noted in media reports, there has been a drop of 30 per cent in pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prescriptions in BC between April and May and a 70 per cent drop in new initiations into the program.

Lacking research to provide direct proof, it’s believed the populations which would have been taking PrEP have been listening to health officials’ orders to stay home and limit physical interactions. Dr. Junine Toy, senior manager for the Drug Treatment Program at the centre, didn’t speculate as to the reason for the decline in PrEP prescriptions but did say the change in the volume aligned with the response to COVID-19.

The accredited BC-CfE laboratories are another area where staff have had to make changes to accommodate COVID-19. In an update to doctors, prescribers, and people living with HIV, Laboratory Director Dr. Zabrina Brumme said increasing global demand for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing has, for the second time during this pandemic, affected the availability of critical reagents required for HIV plasma viral load testing.

Due to this, Dr. Brumme has requested a decrease in the frequency of HIV Plasma Viral Load Testing in stable patients on a stable antiretroviral therapy regimen. The BC-CfE’s HIV and HCV Precision Medicine Testing Services has not been affected and the centre’s medication dispensing services for its HIV Treatment and Prevention programs is continuing as usual.

Dr. Jeff Joy, a BC-CfE senior research scientist specializing in evolutionary genetics, molecular epidemiology and bioinformatics, has been studying how COVID-19 spread around the globe, in particular how it arrived in North America and Europe. Furthermore, Dr. Joy and his research group have been using genomic analyses to quantify the effects of public health interventions and to study how the virus is evolving through time.

Dr. Joy’s as-yet-unpublished study suggests contact tracing efforts after the first cases of COVID-19 appeared in both the US and Germany were successful. Later introductions of the virus led to the outbreaks that are responsible for the epidemics in the US and Europe. In the US case these later introductions took place after travel bans were put in place.

This kind of epidemiological research, so critical during a pandemic, will help in guiding policies to keep populations safe and fatalities down.