It’s cold in Thompson, Manitoba. The snow squeaks and the roads are nearly pure ice; everyone drives a truck up here. I’ve arrived here to do a three-day training alongside Gina McKay from Sexuality Education Resource Centre and Carrie Pockett from Play it Safer Network. With some resources from Keewatin Tribal Council’s Adele Sweeny, we’ll be spending time with 25 people from 16 First Nations communities in the area.
Recent developments in prevention are pointing to worrying gaps in the community-based approach to HIV prevention in Canada. Perhaps we have been used to having only a single prevention technology on our books for so long – think condoms – that our ducks are not always in a row when new ones like PrEP come along. Thus potholes in our response become apparent – and none leap in to fix them. After a series of somewhat inconclusive PrEP trials, whose results were marred by adherence issues, the results of more stringent trials like the PROUD and IPERGAY studies are in,...
What happens when much of your life is built around a particular position or identity, and then that identity changes? In 1993, while in the hospital having my daughter, I was diagnosed with hepatitis C. Three years ago, I did the ribavirin and pegylated interferon treatment and cleared the virus. It’s very cool to be living virus-free after 25+ years of being positive, but it is also kind of weird.
In Canada and in much of the Western world, thanks to the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy, there has been a clear improvement in health status and increased life expectancy of people living with HIV approaching that of the general population. However, despite these medical advances, negative public perception about HIV has yet to catch up to the reality that most clinicians encounter. The reality for the most part is of healthy and conscientious patients looking to improve their quality of life.
Recently I was asked to speak at an event organized by Alex McClelland and Nicole Greenspan called “Where Do We Go From Here? AIDS Organizing, Services, Bureaucracy & the State.” The event aimed to address a number of questions, including: What are the limits of current community-based practice based on engagement with the state? Are today’s AIDS service organizations (ASOs) adequately resourced and designed to undertake their intended role? Is the role sufficient to address the ongoing and emerging HIV issues that marginalized communities face? Due to state constraints, what are the consequences on advocacy possibilities for ASOs, or ASO...
