Indigenizing research: the Wise Practices conference

 February 6, 2018 •  By Laurie Edmiston

This past year the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) held its annual gathering, on the theme of “transforming wholistic approaches to Indigenous health.” It’s a gathering of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people, combining a business meeting, a gathering of Aboriginal people with HIV/AIDS, and the ‘Wise Practices’ research conference. But more importantly, it is a gathering of colleagues who have become friends, clients who have become peers, people with HIV who have become community leaders, and an extended family.  Also present are elders welcoming delegates to their traditional lands, and children – the younger ones mostly playing with each...

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Inclusion and respect – appreciating the role people living with HIV have with our research partners

 January 29, 2018 •  By Brent Allan, Laurel Sprague, Suzy Malhotra and Rebecca Matheson

The partnerships forged between people living with HIV and researchers have been an essential foundation upon which the response to the HIV epidemic has grown. And the time has come to reaffirm and recommit to principles of inclusion and respect in the conduct of presenting research findings that impacts on our lives.

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A step toward ending unjust HIV criminalization, with more to be done in 2018

 January 22, 2018 •  By Nicholas Caivano

For people living with HIV and their allies, 2017 was a ground-breaking year. It culminated with both the federal and Ontario governments publicly recognizing the need to limit the over-criminalization of HIV in Canada. On World AIDS Day 2017, both acknowledged that criminal prosecution for alleged HIV non-disclosure is not warranted when a person living with HIV has a “suppressed viral load” (i.e., less than 200 copies of HIV/ml of blood) because such an individual poses no “realistic possibility” of transmitting the virus—the Supreme Court’s legal test for whether a duty to disclose exists.

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Canada’s top doctors say Undetectable = Untransmittable

 December 1, 2017 •  By Laurie Edmiston

It’s official! The Government of Canada supports U=U, the consensus statement that a person living with HIV does not transmit the virus sexually if they take treatment and maintain an undetectable viral load (“undetectable = untransmittable”). The news came on November 30 in a joint statement from Canada’s chief public health officer and the chief medical officers of health of all Canadian provinces and territories.

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Eliminating viral hepatitis is possible: Four lessons from the World Hepatitis Summit

 November 16, 2017 •  By Melisa Dickie

As deaths from many communicable diseases continue to decline globally, deaths caused by viral hepatitis have now surpassed all other chronic infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Yet it is one of the few global health threats with easy solutions. Highly effective vaccines exist for hepatitis A and B. We now have a cure for hepatitis C. With these tools at our disposal, why aren’t we seeing an impact on the epidemic?

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Le crystal meth, parlons-en

 November 7, 2017 •  By Martin Bilodeau

Si la dépendance psychologique au crystal est puissante, son association intime avec le cul, dans la communauté gaie, doit être nommée, reconnue et abordée, puisque tout simplement, l’un peut être le revers qui fait rechuter l’autre. Si une substance peut devenir problématique en soi, il demeure impératif de prendre en compte les facteurs intersectionnels en jeu dans la relation à sa consommation. De même, le facteur technologique des modes de rencontre et de livraison de baise et de drogue à domicile doit être pris en considération dans notre compréhension du sujet et ce, sans stigmatisation.

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