B.C. owes Downtown Eastside activists thanks for Vancouver’s reputation as a research leader on HIV/AIDS

Today B.C. pats itself on the back for progress its made on HIV/AIDS, but Vancouver’s ground-breaking work emerged from a crisis

A little more than 20 years after Vancouver became known internationally as the city with the “highest HIV-infection rate in the Western World,” the provincial government has said B.C. now “nears the end of the AIDS epidemic”.

On World AIDS Day (December 1), the province announced that 2018 saw a record-low number of new HIV cases in B.C.

“With the success of the Treatment as Prevention strategy (TasP), B.C. is seen as the having the world’s gold standard to profoundly reduce HIV transmission and transition the crisis from a serious epidemic to a manageable chronic disease,” B.C. health minister Adrian Dix said quoted in a media release.

It’s noted there that the number of new HIV infections recorded in B.C. has fallen consistently from 437 cases in 2004 to 205 in 2018.

TaSP was pioneered in Vancouver’s West End at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BCCfE) under the leadership of Dr. Julio Montaner. In 2014, the United Nations adopted its 90-90-90 targets-90 percent of people living with HIV know their status, 90 percent of people diagnosed with HIV receive antiretroviral therapy, and 90 percent of people receiving antiretroviral therapy achieve viral suppression-as the world’s best chance to end the global AIDS epidemic.

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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy has transitioned to private courier for delivery of medications. We recommend requesting medication at least 2 weeks in advance in case of delivery delays, particularly to rural/remote parts of BC. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service

The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below