VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – An HIV/AIDS addiction and viral hepatitis research centre located in the Downtown Eastside is getting $2 million from the provincial government.
St. Paul’s Hospital’s Hope to Health Research Clinic is getting the funds.
The money will help expand the size of the existing facility according to Director Dr. Julio Montaner.
“[It’s] going to the dedicated to the refurbishing of the locale because really this is basically an empty box to a historic building we have 10,000 square feet per floor but really all we have is an empty box.”
Montaner says the government has continually shown their support for the work.
“The confidence that they have shown on the work that we do and the fact that they have not hesitated to embrace even controversial programs, at times with significant political capital griefs for them because they know we are on the right track,” he says.
There are 6,000 HIV experts in Vancouver this week for the eighth International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Treatment and Prevention.