CATIE Blog | Page 23 | HIV and hepatitis C news and opinions

Meeting people where they are is about much more than location: Delivering hepatitis C care and treatment to people who use drugs

October 14, 2019 • By Tracy Swan

Poverty, stigma and criminalization are chronic problems among people who use and inject drugs. But hepatitis C virus (HCV) is no longer such a problem, since it is usually cured by eight to 12 weeks of oral, direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). Delivering DAAs to people who use and inject drugs in the context of the chronic problems facing them is an opportunity to recognize and support the contribution of people with lived experience, and to build and strengthen systems and programs.

Community pharmacists: Underutilized resources in the HIV care team

September 9, 2019 • By Mike Stuber

Pharmacists are drug therapy experts. We are responsible for ensuring medications are used safely, responsibly and effectively to maximize the benefits of treatment. This is especially true in the provision of care to people living with HIV. But community pharmacists are often seen as separate from the HIV care team. We are largely left out of therapeutic decision-making, despite our central role in dispensing medications. But community pharmacists have demonstrated that we can play a vital role in HIV care.

Blueprint for Hepatitis C Elimination in Canada: A priority populations and health equity approach – Part Two

August 29, 2019 • By Jennifer Broad, Sandra Ka Hon Chu, Lindsay Jennings

This blog post is a follow-up from an earlier post published on August 27, 2019 about the Blueprint to Inform Hepatitis C Elimination Efforts in Canada.

Blueprint for Hepatitis C Elimination in Canada: A priority populations and health equity approach – Part One

August 26, 2019 • By Dr. Jordan Feld, Carrielynn Lund, Fozia Tanveer

An introduction by Dr. Jordan Feld, University Health Network Nearly 250,000 Canadians are living with hepatitis C (HCV), yet 45% are undiagnosed and remain at risk of developing complications related to long-term liver damage like liver cancer. Hepatitis C causes more years of life lost than any other infectious disease in Canada. Fortunately, with the arrival of safe treatment that cures more than 95% of people, combined with simple diagnostic methods and effective prevention strategies, we now have the tools to eliminate hepatitis C.

Can Halifax open Atlantic Canada’s first legal overdose prevention site? Yes, we can!

August 14, 2019 • By Matthew Bonn

This blog post is a follow-up from an earlier post published on July 11, 2019. As I work on a new funding proposal, this statement strikes me: over 11,500 people in Canada have lost their lives as a result of opioid-related overdoses between January 2016 and December 2018 and we keep losing people every day. So many lives lost! And why is that? The evidence is clear that overdose prevention sites save lives! After I returned from a hands-on training in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, one of the hardest hit places in the overdose crisis, it became even...

Getting to zero? HIV criminalization and treatment adherence surveillance

July 29, 2019 • By Andrew Sorfleet

At the same time that federal Justice Minister, David Lametti—at a national symposium on HIV criminalization in Toronto organized by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network—was announcing his Liberal Party platform for a new HIV law should they get re-elected this fall, David Bennett Hynd was being arrested and held in custody by police in Vancouver.