Tag: HIV testing | CATIE Blog

CAHR 2023: Interview videos with leaders in Canada’s response to HIV

August 17, 2023 • By CATIE

Every year the Canadian Association for HIV Research (CAHR) organizes Canada’s leading HIV research conference, where researchers, service providers, people living with HIV, policy-makers and advocates come together to exchange knowledge, share their work and learn about advances in HIV research. CATIE attended CAHR 2023 in Quebec City to tap into the latest discussions and debates in Canada’s HIV response. Learn more about what people were saying at the conference in the videos below. Canada’s progress on its HIV targets CATIE caught up with leaders in Canada’s response to HIV and asked them how Canada performed on its 2020 targets...

Trauma-informed HIV testing: creating safe environments for LGBTQ2S+ people

June 26, 2023 • By Dan Udy

LGBTQ2S+ people across Canada can face many barriers to healthcare, including possible trauma related to sexual and gender identities. Structural factors like homophobia and transphobia mean that these communities face many social issues such as higher rates of unemployment, lower incomes, and lower access to housing. For BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) LGBTQ2S+ people, racism can compound these issues. Such challenges make it harder to access services like primary healthcare or mental healthcare. As a result, HIV testing appointments might be the only chance for help with mental health, drug use, housing or intimate partner violence. Someone in...

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...

Rapid tests for the diagnosis of syphilis and HIV: A potential game changer for Canada

February 2, 2022 • By Ameeta Singh and Jennifer Gratrix

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that is on the rise in Canada, with many areas experiencing outbreaks. In 2019, the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health declared an outbreak after observing a rise in cases not seen since 1948!

Improving HIV testing and care in Canada: I’m Ready and Sex Now – Test@Home

June 27, 2021 • By Dr. Sean B. Rourke and Prof. Nathan Lachowsky

HIV self-testing was approved in Canada in November 2020, largely thanks to research conducted by REACH Nexus, part of Unity Health Toronto’s Map Centre for Urban Health Solutions. But approval does not mean access – the next step is getting self-tests into the hands of people who don’t know they have HIV, and linking them to follow-up treatment and care.