The time is now to invest in Treatment as Prevention in the fight against HIV/AIDS
Dr. Julio Montaner shows B.C. business leaders and the community the urgency to implement Treatment as Prevention to achieve an AIDS-free generation
The bottom line is we must ramp up Treatment as Prevention in Canada now, Dr. Julio Montaner told more than a hundred business leaders and community members at Vancouver’s Scotiabank Theatre this month.
Dr. Montaner, Director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE), was the featured speaker at this year’s St. Paul’s Health Forum, presented by the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation. His presentation, Treatment as Prevention: The key to an AIDS-free generation, highlighted the latest progress in the battle to stop HIV/AIDS and the steps necessary to end the disease.
The St. Paul’s Health Forum was launched as a venue to allow the public to hear directly from the hospital’s world-leading experts. This year’s forum served as an opportunity for the call to implement Treatment as Prevention to reach an audience that included community members and business leaders — those who have the most personally invested in the research and those most able to financially invest and support its advancement”
David Poole, Senior Vice-President of Scotiabank, BC & Yukon, and chair of the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation Board of Directors, said Dr. Montaner made a solid business case.
“We organized this HIV Forum to give the public an opportunity to hear Dr. Montaner discuss the incredible work he and the BC-CfE are conducting at St. Paul’s,” said Poole. “The evidence is clear: We can eliminate HIV and reduce undue burden on our strained health care system by supporting Treatment as Prevention. We can prevent new diagnoses while at the same time improving the lives of those diagnosed.”
Dr. Montaner underlined the urgency for action.
“To curb HIV and reach the promise of an AIDS-free generation, we must ramp up and fully roll out Treatment as Prevention in Canada and around the world,” Dr. Montaner said. “You can deliver on an AIDS-free generation. All you need to do is implement what we already know.”
Treatment as Prevention combines the latest in testing, treatment, care and support. The ground-breaking strategy, pioneered by the BC-CfE, involves widespread HIV testing and access to highly active antiretroviral therapy to those medically eligible. It has led to a marked decrease in morbidity, mortality and HIV transmission. At the height of the epidemic in the early 1990s, one person in B.C. was dying every day of AIDS. In 2012, the number of new HIV diagnoses had dropped to 289. As the only province to implement the Treatment as Prevention strategy, B.C. stands alone as the sole province to show a consistent decline in new HIV diagnoses.
Of those whose lives have been improved is Barbara Lieske, a patient of Dr. Montaner’s since she was first diagnosed with HIV in 2000. Lieske also spoke at the Health Forum, delivering a deeply personal account of when she was diagnosed and how treatment saved her life.
“When I was released from the hospital in January of 2000 my CD4 count was seven and my
viral load was in the millions,” Lieske told the audience. “Thanks to Dr. Montaner, my CD4 count hovers around 950 and my viral load is undetectable. My life is not over. I have not stopped living.”
B.C. continues to support Treatment as Prevention. Last November, the B.C. government announced the provincial roll-out of the STOP HIV/AIDS pilot project, committing $19.9-million in annual funding to the program that provides widespread HIV testing and treatment.
For more information about the St. Paul’s Forum on HIV/AIDS, visit www.helpstpauls.com.