HIV cases drop to lowest levels since 2003, Vancouver Coastal Health says

The number of new HIV cases in the Lower Mainland is on track to drop to its lowest levels since 2003, according to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).

The health authority announced Thursday it has seen diagnoses go down by 52 per cent from 2011 to 2018, from 178 new cases to just 86 last year.

Officials say those cases are trending even further downward this year, with just 26 new cases reported as of June 17.

“This is so encouraging to see,” VCH medical health officer Dr. John Harding said in a media release.

He pointed specifically to made-in-B.C. programs aimed at increasing testing and treatment, including STOP HIV/AIDS and the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS’s Treatment as Prevention strategy, for driving the numbers down.

Harding said before STOP HIV/AIDS was launched in 2009 as an initiative between VCH and Providence Health Care, one in five Canadians living with HIV didn’t know they had the infection.

Many of those people were diagnosed only after they had entered the advanced stages of HIV or AIDS, making it more difficult to deliver effective treatment.

“Today in our region, people are being diagnosed and linked to care earlier, which can prolong and improve people’s lives, as well as reduce transmission to others,” Harding said.

Scroll to Top

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