Tag: HIV testing | CATIE Blog

How HIV self-testing can help to reach the undiagnosed in Canada

November 9, 2022 • By Mallory Harrigan

Increasing access to HIV testing is crucial in the efforts to eliminate HIV as a public health threat in Canada. Testing is the first step for people with HIV to be able to start life-saving treatment. It is also important for people to know their status (whether positive or negative) so that they can prevent passing or getting HIV. HIV self-tests are a low-barrier option that can increase uptake of HIV testing for people who may not otherwise access it. Canada has made progress in reaching more of the undiagnosed, but access to testing is inequitable Estimates recently released by...

We have eight years left

November 9, 2022 • By Jody Jollimore

It’s been just over a month since I took the reins as CATIE’s new executive director, but the countdown is already on. We have less than eight years for Canada to eliminate HIV and hepatitis C as public health threats. In 1990, CATIE was founded as a treatment information hub for people living with HIV. Since then, the organization’s mandate has expanded, and we are now Canada’s knowledge broker for service providers working in HIV and hepatitis C prevention, testing, treatment and care. For most of CATIE’s history, an end goal to the epidemic has always seemed just out of...

Rapid tests for the diagnosis of syphilis and HIV: A potential game changer for Canada

February 2, 2022 • By Ameeta Singh and Jennifer Gratrix

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that is on the rise in Canada, with many areas experiencing outbreaks. In 2019, the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health declared an outbreak after observing a rise in cases not seen since 1948!

Improving HIV testing and care in Canada: I’m Ready and Sex Now – Test@Home

June 27, 2021 • By Dr. Sean B. Rourke and Prof. Nathan Lachowsky

HIV self-testing was approved in Canada in November 2020, largely thanks to research conducted by REACH Nexus, part of Unity Health Toronto’s Map Centre for Urban Health Solutions. But approval does not mean access – the next step is getting self-tests into the hands of people who don’t know they have HIV, and linking them to follow-up treatment and care.

More options for HIV testing in Canada

November 4, 2020 • By Zak Knowles

Testing is an essential part of the HIV cascade of care. People living with HIV can only be linked to treatment, care and support services if they have been diagnosed. Once a person is diagnosed, effective treatment will enable them to live a long and healthy life, to have HIV-negative children, and not have to worry about passing on HIV to their sex partners. People who test negative and are at ongoing risk for HIV can be linked to prevention, harm reduction and other services as necessary.

HIV self-testing: An unnecessary disruption or a democratizing equalizer?

November 4, 2020 • By Dr. Nitika Pant Pai

I feel like a historian sometimes, when I reflect on each meeting or conference session’s proceedings that I have attended internationally, nationally and locally on the topic of HIV self-testing in the past decade or so. I can see patterns in behaviour, consonance and dissonance of thought, speech and action, and I am left in awe and wonder why we humans don’t end up doing the right thing for other fellow humans in need. For key populations, who need our voice to get the products and services they so rightly deserve.