Ontario is nearing United Nations targets set to ensure an international standard of HIV treatment and to bring about the end of the AIDS epidemic, a new study suggests.
But some suffering from the disease are still falling through gaps in care, the study says.
Last year, the UN introduced its 90-90-90 strategy. The goal is that 90 per cent of people living with HIV will know their status, 90 per cent will be receiving drug therapy and 90 per cent will have low or undetectable levels of the virus by 2020.
Dr. Sean Rourke, the study’s principal investigator and a researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital, found that in 2011 87.3 per cent of people studied were receiving care.
The study also found that 77 per cent of people with the AIDS-causing virus were receiving antiretroviral treatment and 70 per cent had a suppressed viral load – meaning the amount of the virus in their blood had dropped.
The study, published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, was based on data from more than 5,000 people living with HIV in Ontario over a 10-year period.
“The good news is that people with HIV who are in care are doing well,” said Rourke. “The bad news is that there are still some gaps.”
According to the study, these gaps in care include younger adults with HIV, especially younger gay men, as well as people with a history of substance abuse.