Why the Fuck Aren’t the Federal Parties Talking About the Indigenous AIDS Crisis?

published on September 29, 2015 by Manisha Krishnan, in VICE

Federal data shows that while the national average for new HIV infections is 5.9 per 100,000 people, in some First Nations communities, the numbers jump to 63.6 new infections per 100,000 people. On Saskatchewan's Ahtahkakoop First Nation, 60 of 1,700 reserve members, or about 3.5 percent of the population, are HIV positive. Those rates are higher than rates in the African nations of Nigeria, the Congo, and Rwanda.

While Indigenous people make up just four percent of the national population, they accounted for 16 percent of new HIV infections in 2013 and 21 percent of new AIDS cases, according to leading Vancouver researcher Dr. Julio Montaner.

Montaner, who heads up the University of British Columbia Medical School's Division of AIDS, told VICE the issue amounts to an "epidemic"—and he's astounded that the federal government won't recognize it as such.

"If HIV was represented in 'old stock Canadians' in the rates that its represented in First Nations communities, that would be declared an emergency tomorrow," he said.

Last weekend, Montaner attended 2015 UN General Assembly in New York City, where he discussed the 90-90-90 Target, a strategy to "end AIDS by 2030" based on work by BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. The three-fold program aims to have 90 percent of all people living with HIV know their sero-status (antibodies detectable to HIV), have access to high quality antiretroviral therapy and have HIV suppression treatment by 2020. The plan has been backed by the UN, as well as a number of other countries including the US and China. But Montaner said Canada has largely remained silent about the developments, a result, he believes, of the ideology of the Conservative government.

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Julio Montaner

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Why the Fuck Aren’t the Federal Parties Talking About the Indigenous AIDS Crisis?

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