VANCOUVER, B.C. – December 1st is World AIDS Day, an international day to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS around the world. This virus remains a major global health issue, with over 33 million people living with HIV worldwide, and more than 2 million deaths each year.
Data released by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that HIV prevention programmes are making a difference. According to 2009 AIDS epidemic update, new HIV infections have been reduced by 17% over the past eight years.
Here in British Columbia we have seen a decrease in the number of people diagnosed with HIV. Between 2005 and 2007, the number of new positive HIV tests ranged from 361 to 400 per year. There were 346 new positive HIV tests in 2008, and 287 have been reported to date in 2009. Gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM) are the population with the greatest number of new HIV diagnoses each year in B.C., followed by people who acquire HIV through heterosexual sex or through injection drug use. Aboriginal people are disproportionately represented in B.C.’s HIV epidemic.
“B.C.’s multi-pronged response to HIV is helping to reduce the total number of people diagnosed with a HIV infection each year, while the number of people that are tested continues to increase,” said Ida Chong, Minister of Healthy Living and Sport. “Our comprehensive strategies and programs for the prevention of HIV are helping to reduce infections, and people living with HIV/AIDS are getting the best care, support and treatment.”
AIDS, or Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome, is a serious disease caused by a virus called HIV, Human Immunodeficiency Virus. This virus harms your immune system, which protects you against infections. Since people with established HIV infection do not have this protection, they can get many different infections and cancers. Treatment with highly-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) improves survival and quality of life in people with HIV, and prevents the onset of AIDS.
“In B.C. we have seen a slight decline in persons testing newly positive for HIV,” explains Dr. Michael Rekart, STI/HIV Director at the BC Centre for Disease Control. “Despite this progress, we need to underline the importance of the threat posed by HIV and not to forget that HIV/AIDS is still a major health problem. We have a lot of work still to do in tackling an increasingly complex network of infection and transmission in our province.”
“BCCDC, along with our health partners, have clearly recognized that you need a number of services to target BC’s STI and HIV challenges,” says Dr Rekart. “Our STI clinics and staff continue to serve the public and populations most affected by HIV by way of providing HIV testing services, in tandem with PHSA Laboratories. But beyond that, we reach out to a range of groups and stakeholders in a variety of truly innovative ways.”
A key programme is run by the BCCDC Outreach Nurses who work with the marginalized population of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. On another front, BCCDC offers safer sex advice to men who have sex with men (MSM) via the STI/HIV Division’s Cyber Outreach Program. Outreach nurses log on to websites used by MSM to make contact, using the opportunity to provide important information and answer questions.
B.C.’s Aboriginal and First Nations communities, particularly vulnerable to STI and HIV, are supported by BCCDC’s Chee Mamuk program whose recent campaigns have targeted young people. One such effort is the Star in Your Own Stories project which teaches high-school students in First Nations communities how to script, direct and produce their own short films to convey sexual health and safer sex messages.
For more information about HIV/AIDS, you can call the 24-hour BC HealthLink line at 811, contact a family physician, or visit:
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