Category: Articles | Page 8

Listening to communities: Lessons from the HIV/AIDS and monkeypox epidemics

November 9, 2022 • By Malika Sharma

Just over 40 years ago, clinicians recognized a rare form of pneumonia in a handful of otherwise healthy young men in Los Angeles. This cluster would soon become known as the “start” of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 2022, clinicians in sexual health clinics in Montreal reported the first cases of monkeypox in Canada. In both instances, however, affected communities were the first to know that something was up. In the years before HIV was identified, people who inject drugs talked of “junkie pneumonia” or “the dwindles”. Later, these were identified as AIDS-related complications. Early in our current global monkeypox outbreak, members...

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.

Abortion access in Canada: Could what’s happening in the U.S. happen here?

August 29, 2022 • By Coral Maloney

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there are a lot of people asking: what is the current state of abortion access in Canada? Could what’s happening in the U.S. happen here?