Category: News

Blueprint for Hepatitis C Elimination in Canada: A priority populations and health equity approach – Part One

An introduction by Dr. Jordan Feld, University Health Network Nearly 250,000 Canadians are living with hepatitis C (HCV), yet 45% are undiagnosed and remain at risk of developing complications related to long-term liver damage like liver cancer. Hepatitis C causes more years of life lost than any other infectious disease in Canada. Fortunately, with the arrival of safe treatment that cures more than 95% of people, combined with simple diagnostic methods and effective prevention strategies, we now have the tools to eliminate hepatitis C.

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Can Halifax open Atlantic Canada’s first legal overdose prevention site? Yes, we can!

This blog post is a follow-up from an earlier post published on July 11, 2019. As I work on a new funding proposal, this statement strikes me: over 11,500 people in Canada have lost their lives as a result of opioid-related overdoses between January 2016 and December 2018 and we keep losing people every day. So many lives lost! And why is that? The evidence is clear that overdose prevention sites save lives! After I returned from a hands-on training in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, one of the hardest hit places in the overdose crisis, it became even...

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Getting to zero? HIV criminalization and treatment adherence surveillance

At the same time that federal Justice Minister, David Lametti—at a national symposium on HIV criminalization in Toronto organized by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network—was announcing his Liberal Party platform for a new HIV law should they get re-elected this fall, David Bennett Hynd was being arrested and held in custody by police in Vancouver.

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Hepatitis C elimination in Canada: Five approaches to make it happen

Canada is one of 194 countries that have signed on to the World Health Organization’s Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis, committing to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030. The wide availability of a cure for all Canadians, along with new tools to prevent and diagnose hepatitis C, mean that elimination is now possible for the first time. This year, new research and examples from other countries have shown how we can approach an elimination strategy, and Canada has started to build momentum. Here are five approaches that we can adopt to make hepatitis C...

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Working to end the criminalization of HIV in Canada

On June 14, I travelled to Toronto to meet with leading activists, researchers and experts working to end the criminalization of HIV in Canada for the 8th Symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights. Organized by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the annual forum for the past few years has focused solely on advocacy to end Canada’s position as a global leader in the criminalization of people living with HIV for alleged non-disclosure, exposure and transmission.

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In the eyes of Indigenous people: The link between colonialism and hepatitis C, and the need for historic trauma-informed care

Why do First Nations, Métis and Inuit in Canada carry such an unfair burden of hepatitis C in Canada? It is estimated that hepatitis C among Indigenous people is five-times higher than non-Indigenous Canadians. In particular, Indigenous women represent almost half of all hepatitis C cases in their communities, a much higher proportion than among the non-Indigenous Canadian population. Young Indigenous people (24 years and under) represent 70% to 80% of hepatitis C infections among people who inject drugs in Canada.

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