December 1, 2012 | Health Matters

New hope on World AIDS Day 2012

Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day.

It was established as an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died. World AIDS Day started in 1988 and was the first ever global health day.

Of course, the fight to eliminate AIDS from the world is still a work in progress. There are 34 million people living with HIV, many of whom don't even know it. And daily, new people are infected.

But there is some serious new hope in battling the disease, courtesy of a Canadian province.

British Columbia (BC) has become the only province in the country where the rate of new HIV infections is actually falling at a steady rate.

Part of the reason: BC is the only province that covers the cost of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), and actively encourages those diagnosed with the disease to take advantage of it. HAART, which includes a combination of drugs, decreases the amount of HIV in one's system and helps to rebuild the immune system. It becomes more difficult to transfer the disease to a sexual partner.

This isn't cheap, though; HAART costs about $10,000 a year in Canada. Still, this is much cheaper than treating people for AIDS.

The second part of BC's success includes universal testing.

The more people who know their status, the theory goes, the more people who can be treated. It also decreases the chances of someone unknowingly spreading the virus.

This does not mean mandatory testing. Instead, patients visiting an ER or a doctor will be asked, each and every time, if they wish to confirm their HIV status. A pilot project in Vancouver found that 92 per cent of patients answered “Yes” when asked. There's no excuse not to know.

On Friday, BC's Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid announced a $19.9-million expansion of the pilot project to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The BC stats are more impressive at first glance, as much of the impact has been on intravenous drug users, of which the province has the most in the country. Still, the policy is a success that other jurisdictions should look at and adapt to their own populations.  

B.C. leading the way in HIV-AIDS fight, but other provinces slow to follow [Globe and Mail]

Results of aggressive ‘seek and treat’ AIDS program earn funding [Globe and Mail]

Information on World AIDS Day [World AIDS Day]