Aboriginal leader points to poverty behind HIV

SASKATOON – A Saskatchewan native leader says any strategy to further bring down HIV rates in the province must include an aboriginal component.

Health officials reported Monday that there was a five per cent drop in the number of new HIV cases in the province last year.

But Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations points out the aboriginal population is over-represented in those statistics.

Bellegarde says that’s because there’s a lot of poverty on First Nations reserves.

He says overcrowded housing, lack of education and poor health all need to be addressed.

Bellegarde also says there needs to be the political will to fight ignorance and discrimination.

“The prevention and the treatment and the spread of (HIV) is a huge issue,” Bellegarde told government officials, health authority representatives and frontline workers at a Prairies HIV conference on Tuesday.

By Staff
The Canadian Press
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