Category: Articles | Page 28

Lessons learned from the HCV Symposium Part 1: Blinders off, and who cleans up after the fight?

June 21, 2016 • By Leona Quewezance and Stephanie Massey

On February 27, 2016 CATIE had the opportunity to host another Learning Institute (LI) at the 5th Canadian Symposium on HCV in Montreal, Quebec. Learning Institutes are exciting knowledge-exchange and capacity-building opportunities for stakeholders engaged in Hep C prevention, treatment and care across Canada. Our 15 rapporteurs learned about current research and worked together to summarize that information and bring it back to their communities.

In part one of this two-part blog series, two rapporteurs reflect on their experiences at the LI.

HPV Vaccine: Who needs it?

June 7, 2016 • By Dr. Irving Salit

Did you know that men can get HPV cancers? HPV (the human papillomavirus) causes warts, pre-cancers and cancers. HPV is most famous for causing cervical cancer so it has mainly been linked in people’s minds to cancer in women. Because of that, HPV cancer prevention programs have only focused on women (for example, governments spend many millions on cervical cancer screening and immunizing girls against HPV). However, HPV is readily passed between partners and the other half of the world (men!) get HPV as much as women do. So let us get the facts straight about HPV in men and women and what to do about it.

How The Cedar Project is using mobile phones to engage young Indigenous people who use drugs in HIV prevention and treatment

May 31, 2016 • By Kate Jongbloed

How’s it going?

These three little words have tremendous power. Sent as a simple text message, it creates an opportunity for dialogue between a case manager and a person seeking health care.

HIV disclosure is more than a one-time conversation

May 10, 2016 • By Erin Seatter

Decades after the emergence of HIV, disclosure remains one of the biggest challenges for women living with HIV. There’s nothing easy or straightforward about it. When thinking about whether to tell someone about their HIV-positive status, women must consider a range of possible results, for themselves as well as their families.

Six ways to make harm reduction work in Canada’s prisons

April 19, 2016 • By Emily van der Meulen and Sandra Ka Hon Chu

In Canada today, prisoners who inject drugs need to share needles, many of which have been used numerous times by other prisoners. Without access to sterile injection equipment, rates of HIV and hepatitis C virus are much higher behind bars than in the broader community. Prison-based needle and syringe programs (PNSPs) are an important way to address this public health problem, yet Canadian correctional authorities often claim they won’t work. A recent study demonstrates that PNSPs are indisputably feasible in Canada and should be implemented now.

Are we doing enough to help people make the best treatment and prevention decisions?

April 12, 2016 • By Bob Leahy

In an era where sometimes difficult, science-based decisions are routinely required of both positive and negative individuals− think when to start treatment, or the relative benefits of PrEP vs condoms− are we doing enough to steer people away from bad decisions?