Positive Thoughts: Good Morning Vietnam

My stepfather came back from Vietnam in the mid-’70s, a broken man with post-traumatic stress disorder and health complications that grow more dire the older he gets. His PTSD has lasted 40 years; he couldn’t “just let it go” as some people have admonished. I was talking with my friend Scott* recently and couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two men, veterans of wars they didn’t want to participate in, both still suffering from PTSD. Scott, however, never served in the military. He is a veteran of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s, that first wave of battle before the enemy was known but not before his comrades were all killed.

Scott has AIDS. He’s OK when I call it stage three HIV, as many activists and scientists now do to remove the stigma – after all, AIDS is simply the last stage of HIV disease – but he doesn’t want the world, and the LGBT community especially, to know he’s living with AIDS, and has been for 30 years or so.

Nobody listens to old gay guys living with HIV. Our world, from the prevention workers to the gay clubs to LGBT media, has focused on the fastest growing group getting HIV: young gay and bi men under 30. There’s good reason for that both from a prevention standpoint and a sense of racial justice. Young gay and bi men, especially those of color, have the highest risk of HIV among all young people, and while African-Americans only represent 33 percent of people under 24 in the national population, they account for 57 percent of new HIV infections among those aged 13-24. For young black trans women the stats are even worse; 56 percent of all black transgender women already have HIV.

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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