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

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. These systems and programs must provide welcoming, respectful and safe spaces for people who use and inject drugs, as they...

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Community pharmacists: Underutilized resources in the HIV care team

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.

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Modèle directeur pour guider les efforts d’élimination de l’hépatite C au Canada : Une approche basée sur les populations prioritaires et l’équité en matière de santé – Deuxième partie

Ce billet de blogue est un suivi d’un autre billet qui a été publié le 27 août, 2019 sur le Modèle directeur pour guider les efforts d’élimination de l’hépatite C au Canada. 

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Modèle directeur pour guider les efforts d’élimination de l’hépatite C au Canada : Une approche basée sur les populations prioritaires et l’équité en matière de santé – Première partie

Introduction du Dr Jordan Feld, University Health Network Près de 250 000 Canadiens vivent avec l’hépatite C (VHC), et pourtant 45 % de ces cas ne sont pas diagnostiqués et demeurent à risque de complications liées à des lésions hépatiques à long terme telles que le cancer du foie. L’hépatite C cause plus d’années de vie perdues que toute autre maladie infectieuse au Canada. Heureusement, grâce à l’arrivée de traitements dotés d’un bon profil d’innocuité qui amènent la guérison chez plus de 95 % des personnes, associés à des méthodes diagnostiques simples et des stratégies efficaces de prévention, nous disposons désormais des outils requis...

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

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...

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Getting to zero? HIV criminalization and treatment adherence surveillance

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.

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