Thousands of British Columbians benefiting from no-cost HIV prevention treatment: Health Minster

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – More than 2,000 people in this province have benefited from the expanded coverage of drugs that can prevent HIV infection.

Health Minister Adrian Dix called BC’s treatment “world-leading” at an announcement this morning.

“There are an estimated 7,271 British Columbians living with HIV today. Preventing new infections and giving people the support they need to protect themselves from this virus is a priority,” says Dix.

“Through the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/Aids, we’ve been providing pre-exposure prophylaxis, ‘PrEP’ treatment, at no cost to people who are at high-risk of HIV infection. PrEP is one component of our treatment as prevention strategy.”

BC introduced that no-cost coverage on January 1st and when the program reaches 5,000 people, it’s believed the province will achieve a greater than 83 per cent reduction of new HIV cases by 2026.

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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

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