CATIE Blog | Page 7 | HIV and hepatitis C news and opinions

How HIV self-testing can help to reach the undiagnosed in Canada

November 9, 2022 • By Mallory Harrigan

Increasing access to HIV testing is crucial in the efforts to eliminate HIV as a public health threat in Canada. Testing is the first step for people with HIV to be able to start life-saving treatment. It is also important for people to know their status (whether positive or negative) so that they can prevent passing or getting HIV. HIV self-tests are a low-barrier option that can increase uptake of HIV testing for people who may not otherwise access it. Canada has made progress in reaching more of the undiagnosed, but access to testing is inequitable Estimates recently released by...

We have eight years left

November 9, 2022 • By Jody Jollimore

It’s been just over a month since I took the reins as CATIE’s new executive director, but the countdown is already on. We have less than eight years for Canada to eliminate HIV and hepatitis C as public health threats. In 1990, CATIE was founded as a treatment information hub for people living with HIV. Since then, the organization’s mandate has expanded, and we are now Canada’s knowledge broker for service providers working in HIV and hepatitis C prevention, testing, treatment and care. For most of CATIE’s history, an end goal to the epidemic has always seemed just out of...

Making supervised consumption services work well for the communities they serve

October 10, 2022 • By Katherine Rudzinski, Andre Ceranto and Soo Chan Carusone

What aspects of SCS are most important for people who use drugs? And how do we know if SCS are working well for the communities they serve? These were questions we set out to answer as part of a community-based project in Toronto funded by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network.

You Matter: Pathways to care for STBBIs for people who have been incarcerated

September 26, 2022 • By Hannah Branch and Sofia Bartlett

Created in collaboration with healthcare workers, corrections staff, community groups, researchers and people with living or lived experience, You Matter provides guidelines and policy recommendations for STBBI testing and linkage to care in B.C.’s provincial correctional centres.

Janet Conners, HIV activist extraordinaire, 1956 – 2022

September 19, 2022 • By Louise Binder and Ron Rosenes

Some of us may be hearing Janet Conners’ name for the first time, but all of us in the HIV/AIDS community owe her a debt of gratitude for the remarkable contributions she made while on this earth.

Cross-boundary PrEP collaboration: A model to emulate

September 8, 2022 • By Lindsay Barton, Monica Durigon, Deanna Macdonald

Since January 1, 2018, eligible British Columbians have been able to receive HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) at no cost, but despite this coverage many still have restricted access to PrEP, especially people living in remote areas of the province. The barriers are many-fold and include persistent stigma, lack of access to healthcare providers and sexual health clinics, lack of awareness, individual discomfort accessing sexual healthcare and lack of transportation to pick up medication or to visit labs for ongoing testing.