Tag: HIV treatment

A conversation between Dr. Theresa Tam and Jade Elektra

Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) refers to the scientific consensus that HIV cannot be sexually transmitted when a person living with HIV consistently takes antiretroviral therapy (ART) and the amount of HIV in their blood remains very low—so low that it cannot be detected by many standard HIV tests. While the U=U message empowers people living with HIV and reduces stigma associated with the virus, it is only effective if individuals living with HIV are able to continuously take their medication. Some people in Canada, such as African, Caribbean and Black communities, Indigenous people, gay, bisexual, and other men who have...

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AIDS Action Now! is disbanding

After 35 years of fierce activism, AIDS Action Now!, the HIV treatment activist group, is shutting down. AIDS Action Now! was formed in Toronto in 1988 as a community-based response to the lack of institutional leadership regarding treatment and healthcare for people living with HIV/AIDS. Its strategy was to combine confrontational public demonstrations with strategic documents and “behind the scenes” meetings with government and institutional leaders. These meetings pushed decision-makers to respond more forcefully to HIV healthcare at a time when it was highly stigmatized and few treatment options were available. Guided by a steering committee composed mostly of people...

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We have eight years left

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...

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Can’t Pass It On: Rainer and Eka’s story

CATIE recently launched its Can’t Pass It On campaign to increase awareness that people living with HIV on effective treatment can’t pass it on to a partner. The series features real serodifferent couples with one HIV-positive and one HIV-negative partner. CATIE sat down with one of these couples, Rainer Oktovianus and Eka Nasution, to learn more about their story and why they chose to participate in the campaign. 

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An “HIV status neutral” paradigm shift

HIV is not what it used to be. Many people with HIV describe it as a chronic condition and a manageable part of their life. HIV prevention is not what it used to be, either. The simultaneous rise of “undetectable equals untransmittable” (U=U) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) caused a radical change in the way we talk about HIV transmission and prevention.

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