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.