BC CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN HIV/AIDS: A TasP SUCCESS STORY

World AIDS Day arrives each December 1 with a sense of sadness, but there was cause to celebrate in British Columbia last December. That was when provincial Health Minister Adrian Dix officially declared that A IDS was no longer an epidemic in British Columbia, but an endemic concern.

Accompanying Dix that day at the opening of the new labora-tory of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) was BC-CfE’s executive director, Dr. Julio Montaner, the man who has spearheaded research and treatment in reducing rates of HIV infection, mortality and transmission.

What a difference from the 1980s, when Argentina-born Mon-taner first started at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital, epicentre of HIV/AIDS in this country. A pulmonary physician, he encountered numerous AIDS patients whose compromised immune systems often meant pneumonia became a death sentence.

Invited to Canada by James Hogg, a University of British Columbia pulmonary physiologist whom he met at a medical conference in Uruguay, and mentored by the clinical pharmacologist John Ruedy, Montaner decided to devote his life to alleviating and preventing HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, and stopping AIDS, ac-quired immune deficiency syndrome – often called Stage 3 HIV – from killing people. And he used an approach that his father, also named Julio, employed to tackle tuberculosis: try different things, including different drugs, to fight the dragon.

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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