Opondo is the medical health officer of the HIV Provincial Leadership Team.
As The StarPhoenix’s editorial on July 6 correctly noted, Saskatchewan does have a high per-capita HIV infection rate. The province launched a comprehensive HIV strategy in 2009 following extensive community and stakeholder consultation.
In addition, the Saskatchewan team examined other provincial HIV-control programs including British Columbia’s STOP HIV control program, which relies heavily on testing and treatment, to find and ensure that all HIV-positive individuals in the province are offered an opportunity to engage in their own health care in addition to other strategies. We adopted those parts that seemed to offer the most promise in the Saskatchewan context.
An HIV Provincial Leadership Team was struck to oversee the four key elements of the strategy: clinical excellence; community engagement; harm reduction; and surveillance and research.
The team, which consists of a medical health officer, HIV program director, infectious disease physicians and a pharmacist, is in constant discussion with other leaders in the HIV prevention and management field, and this includes the B.C. team. Our group assesses whether public health programs that are successful elsewhere could be successful in Saskatchewan, and initiates consultation with the community on such programs.