HIV is not what it used to be. Many people with HIV describe it as a chronic condition and a manageable part of their life. HIV prevention is not what it used to be, either. The simultaneous rise of “undetectable equals untransmittable” (U=U) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) caused a radical change in the way we talk about HIV transmission and prevention.
Pharmacists are drug therapy experts. We are responsible for ensuring medications are used safely, responsibly and effectively to maximize the benefits of treatment. This is especially true in the provision of care to people living with HIV. But community pharmacists are often seen as separate from the HIV care team. We are largely left out of therapeutic decision-making, despite our central role in dispensing medications. But community pharmacists have demonstrated that we can play a vital role in HIV care.
Ending the HIV epidemic in Canada in five years seems like an ambitious goal, but it is now in fact a target being advocated by a group of public health and HIV advocates in a new document published by the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR). I am one of the authors of that document, which acknowledges the necessity of addressing racism and structural violence. But, except for support from a couple co-authors, I am dispirited by the co-authors’ failure to be clear about the difference those systemic and structural issues make, to inspire determination in addressing them, and to...
En énonçant les objectifs 90-90-90 en 2014, l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé et l’ONUSIDA proposaient une impulsion nouvelle : notre génération pourrait voir la fin de l’épidémie du sida. Nombreuses sont les voies possibles pour arriver à ce résultat, et les initiatives de riposte accélérée des Villes, les Fast Track Cities, en sont une. C’est à Paris le 1er décembre 2014 qu’est né ce modèle des Villes sans sida[1], issu d’un constat : les 200 villes les plus touchées abritent à elles seules plus du quart des 35 millions de personnes vivant avec le VIH. En s’impliquant dans la riposte au VIH,...
“The time for excuses is over. It’s very, very clear that the risk is zero. If you are on suppressive antiretroviral treatment you are sexually non-infectious” — Dr. Alison Rodger of University College London, lead author of PARTNER 2, presenting at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, July 25, 2018. It’s difficult to overstate the power of this message for people with HIV, such as myself, because it changes what it means to live with HIV. It opens up social, sexual and reproductive choices we and our sexual partners never thought would be possible. It encourages those of us...
Living with HIV has changed a lot over the years. And in most ways, it’s been for the best. CATIE remains committed to providing up-to-date, accurate, unbiased and relevant information for people living with HIV, and so we recently consulted a group of people with HIV about their views on HIV health information in 2018. We chatted with 15 people, both newly diagnosed people and long-term survivors, from different walks of life and from across the country. Here are five things we learned:
