For more information on the new pilot project, please visit the BC-CfE NPEP page.Lower Mainland residents who may have been exposed to HIV infection through shared needles or unprotected sex can now access free antiretroviral drugs within 72 hours through a new 18-month pilot project.The drugs reduce the likelihood of infection by 80 per cent if they are administered starting within that time frame.The initiative, announced this week by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, will offer a month-long treatment program including supplying drugs, medical assessment and HIV testing at St. Paul’s Hospital and at a number of other Lower Mainland medical centres that treat HIV patients.Known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), it is recognized around the world as the gold-standard treatment for HIV.Until the program was announced, it would cost people at risk of contracting HIV up to $1,500 to receive the HAART treatment.Dr. Val Montessori, co-chair of the centre’s therapeutic guidelines committee, said the free program was aimed at further reducing the number of new HIV patients.B.C. is the only region in Canada that is seeing a decline in HIV cases, from an average of 900 new cases annually in the mid-1990s to just 289 in 2011.Read More