Face à la COVID-19 : trois enjeux pour les hommes ayant des relations sexuelles avec d’autres hommes et leur santé

L’irruption de l’épidémie de COVID-19 a entraîné des changements majeurs dans nos vies quotidiennes. Le confinement d’une bonne partie de la population mondiale et les restrictions de circulation en sont des illustrations spectaculaires ! Mais quelles sont les implications de cette situation inédite pour la santé des hommes ayant des relations sexuelles avec d’autres hommes (HARSAH) ?

Read more

Five ideas to scale up hepatitis C services in Canada

Hepatitis C is curable. Today’s treatment regimens are highly effective and easy to complete. And it has the added benefit of preventing transmission to others, making it possible to eliminate hepatitis C from Canada. However, for many of the most marginalized people affected by hepatitis C in Canada, including people who use drugs, treatment remains frustratingly out of reach. Those who are most at risk are also the ones most often missed by healthcare services.

Read more

“Connecting with Care” in Canada

In 2018, I had the opportunity to spend time in Iran profiling an innovative hepatitis C treatment project for people who use drugs. In partnership with Iranian and Australian researchers and local service providers, I interviewed a number of researchers, clinicians and patients to showcase their success at curing hepatitis C despite stigma and other barriers. As an Australian filmmaker, I have spent much of my working life telling stories of social change with communities throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Yet stories from Canada and North America had remained the most unknown to me.

Read more

Five ideas to improve drug user health in Canada

Hepatitis C prevention, testing and treatment exists within the larger context of drug user health. This broader approach to hepatitis C must address the intersections of harm reduction, overdose prevention, the social determinants of health, and human rights. How can we better integrate these multiple perspectives to our work? To find out, we sat down to hear ideas from the world’s leading voices in hepatitis C at the 8th International Conference on Hepatitis Care in Substance Users (INHSU 2019) in Montreal.

Read more

Top HIV and hepatitis C stories of 2019

In 2019, we saw significant developments in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV and hepatitis C. We helped launch a blueprint for hepatitis C elimination in Canada. We witnessed innovation in HIV prevention and testing approaches, more people cured of hepatitis C, and “the London patient”, the second person cleared of HIV after discontinuing antiretroviral therapy. We also saw drawbacks. We continue to confront a devastating opioid overdose crisis driven by a poisoned drug supply, which claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Canadians in the first six months of the year alone.

Read more