B.C. is at the forefront of the fight to eliminate HIV worldwide, says B.C.’s standard-bearer.
“Make no mistake, we are going to win this fight and we are going to win this fight here in British Columbia.” Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS, said Wednesday.
A new campaign by Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care aims to normalize HIV testing by making it part of regular health care, so that any person who’s ever been sexually active will get tested.
“We need to overcome the single most important obstacle – we need to ensure that people take the test,” Montaner said.
The aim of the “Change HIVsto-ry” campaign is to promote testing, which, in turn, leads to treatment, and ultimately leads to prevention.
Infection and transmission rates have dropped across Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and among injection drug users because of testing and the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) drug cocktail.
According to Montaner, 46 per cent of new infections are transmitted by people unaware they’re infected.