B.C.’s top doctor is pushing to keep harm reduction and anti-retroviral therapy as key health strategies after a new report showed rates of HIV infection among those who inject drugs continues to drop.
Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall released the report noting several reasons why intravenous drug users aren’t catching HIV or hepatitis C despite the risky practice.
One of the factors he cited is highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), which Kendall describes as “the current gold standard in HIV treatment.”
“HAART has the ability to change the way people live with HIV by improving their quality of life and reducing transmission rates,” he said.
Also helping is a pilot program called Seek and Treat to Optimally Prevent HIV/AIDS (STOP AIDS), to which the province has committed $48 million over four years. The year-old project led by Dr. Julio Montaner of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS aims to connect at-risk people in Prince George and Vancouver with testing and treatment services.