Category: Articles | Page 25

HIV and mental health: The elephant in the room

10 octobre 2017 • Par Tammy C. Yates

In his famous poem “The Blind Men and the Elephant”, John Godfrey Saxe retells an Indian parable about three blind men who went to see an elephant. Of course, being blind, they could only ‘see’ the elephant by touching it. When asked to describe the elephant, one grabbed it by its trunk and said, “An elephant is like a snake!” The second man took his turn to touch it, pulled it by the leg, and confidently determined, “No, an elephant is like a tree trunk!” The third and final person to touch the elephant grabbed it by its tusks and...

Pour en savoir plus...

Connected patients, connected providers: Delivering comprehensive, coordinated, team-based care to people living with HIV in Canada

28 septembre 2017 • Par Dr. Claire Kendall and Katie Ablett

Thanks to effective anti-HIV treatment, HIV has evolved into a chronic illness. However, people living with HIV often today also live with other physical and mental health conditions, which can be difficult to cope with, especially for those also coping with difficult socio-economic circumstances. To provide quality care to people living with HIV and other long-term medical and social conditions, health-care providers not only need to ensure that people living with HIV are engaged in quality health care, but we also need to enhance the capacity of Canadian HIV clinics to integrate and coordinate additional resources. By integrating and coordinating...

Pour en savoir plus...

Arrivons-nous à la fin du développement de médicaments contre le VHC?

18 août 2017 • Par Sean Hosein

Au cours des sept dernières années, nous avons assisté à une mise au point étourdissante de médicaments contre le virus de l’hépatite C (VHC). Chaque nouveau traitement s’est généralement révélé plus efficace que le précédent. Les plus récents traitements approuvés pour le VHC au Canada cette semaine incluent Maviret (fabriquée par AbbVie) et Vosevi (fabriqué par Gilead). Lors des essais cliniques, ces traitements offerts sous forme de comprimé ont donné lieu à des taux élevés de guérison (habituellement supérieurs à 95 pour cent) et ont causé peu d’effets secondaires graves. Même s’il s’écoulera encore six mois ou plus avant que ces...

Pour en savoir plus...

World Hepatitis Day: Finally something to celebrate?

28 juillet 2017 • Par Annika Ollner

Every year on July 28, we mark World Hepatitis Day with an event to educate, gather together, and also remember those we have lost from the hepatitis C community. This year, we should have much to celebrate: in early 2017, medications that had previously been unavailable were finally added to some formularies, including Ontario’s. This means that people with certain types of hepatitis C who have been waiting years to access safe, effective medication will finally be able to start treatment and be cured. For many, being cured means avoiding potentially fatal outcomes like liver failure and liver cancer. It...

Pour en savoir plus...

Hepatitis C cascade of care: An essential tool for monitoring progress towards HCV elimination

28 juillet 2017 • Par Dr. Naveed Z Janjua

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major public health problem. Worldwide, about 70 million people are living with hepatitis C virus infection, with a higher prevalence in developing countries. In Canada, 210,753 to 461,517 people are infected with HCV, and an estimated 20 to 40 per cent of infections remain undiagnosed. Those born during the period of 1945 until 1965 have the highest rates of infection and, having acquired the virus decades ago, are now increasingly being diagnosed with serious liver-related illnesses, including liver failure and liver cancer and non-liver related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and kidney...

Pour en savoir plus...

U=U and the overly-broad criminalization of HIV nondisclosure

6 juin 2017 • Par Nicholas Caivano and Sandra Ka Hon Chu

People living with HIV in Canada have been charged with some of the most serious offences in the Criminal Code, even in cases of consensual sex where there was negligible or no risk of HIV transmission, no actual transmission and no intent to transmit. The Undetectable=Untransmittable (“U=U”) campaign is based on scientific research, including the ground-breaking PARTNER study, establishing that when a person living with HIV on treatment maintains an undetectable viral load for at least six months, the risk of transmitting the virus through sex is effectively non-existent. As advocates for persons living with HIV await action from federal,...

Pour en savoir plus...