Fighting the disease: Vancouver’s Dr. Julio Montaner leads the international movement to stop HIV/AIDS

Deep inside the maze of offices in the West End’s St. Paul’s Hospital, Julio Montaner has been leading a global revolution to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. For the past four decades, the Argentinian-born doctor has been at the forefront of finding treatments for the infected and reaching others before they suffer the same fate.

Having helped create the world’s most effective HIV treatment therapy and spearheaded a campaign for point-of-care testing for at-risk groups, Montaner’s research has helped save countless lives, from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to sub-Sahara Africa.

The director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and past-president of the International AIDS Society, Montaner has been well recognized for his work-most recently, he was awarded the prestigious Albert Einstein World Award of Science. He is now pushing countries to adopt the Vienna Declaration, which calls on governments around the world to decriminalize drug users and remove barriers to effective HIV prevention, treatment and care.

But despite his many accomplishments, the extremely passionate and vocal Montaner has been involved in a long-running feud with Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government over the fate of Vancouver’s safe-injection site, its decision to expand jail cells and the lack of funding to tackle the disease.

Montaner recently sat down with Megaphone in his small St. Paul’s Hospital office and discussd the purpose of the Vienna Declaration, his fight to help the Downtown Eastside control its HIV/AIDS rates, and how Canada and the world needs to refocus its energy on HIV treatment before the crisis spirals out of control.

Read the interview >>

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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