Tag: Prévention du VIH

Love Positive Women: why a fulfilling sexual life with HIV matters

By Allison Carter, Jessica Whitbread and Angela Kaida “I went through a long period, seems like ancient history now, but I remember when I was first diagnosed, I felt so dirty. Like everything about me was, I suppose, unsafe and unclean and my blood was just full of crap. Just the whole thing was very internalized… For the most part now, I feel loveable. I feel good about myself. I just feel like I’ve still got a lot to offer and give and that I can be part of a strong, healthy relationship, despite the difficulties, I suppose.” —Anonymous quote by a...

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A step toward ending unjust HIV criminalization, with more to be done in 2018

For people living with HIV and their allies, 2017 was a ground-breaking year. It culminated with both the federal and Ontario governments publicly recognizing the need to limit the over-criminalization of HIV in Canada. On World AIDS Day 2017, both acknowledged that criminal prosecution for alleged HIV non-disclosure is not warranted when a person living with HIV has a “suppressed viral load” (i.e., less than 200 copies of HIV/ml of blood) because such an individual poses no “realistic possibility” of transmitting the virus—the Supreme Court’s legal test for whether a duty to disclose exists.

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Les médecins en chef du Canada l’affirment : Indétectable = Intransmissible

C’est officiel! Le Gouvernement du Canada appuie I=I, la déclaration de consensus affirmant qu’une personne vivant avec le VIH ne transmet pas le virus par voie sexuelle si elle suit un traitement antirétroviral et maintient une charge virale indétectable (« indétectable = intransmissible »). L’annonce a été faite le 30 novembre dans une déclaration collective de l’administratrice en chef de la santé publique du Canada et des médecins hygiénistes en chef de toutes les provinces et de tous les territoires du Canada.

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Le crystal meth, parlons-en

Si la dépendance psychologique au crystal est puissante, son association intime avec le cul, dans la communauté gaie, doit être nommée, reconnue et abordée, puisque tout simplement, l’un peut être le revers qui fait rechuter l’autre. Si une substance peut devenir problématique en soi, il demeure impératif de prendre en compte les facteurs intersectionnels en jeu dans la relation à sa consommation. De même, le facteur technologique des modes de rencontre et de livraison de baise et de drogue à domicile doit être pris en considération dans notre compréhension du sujet et ce, sans stigmatisation.

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U=U and the overly-broad criminalization of HIV nondisclosure

People living with HIV in Canada have been charged with some of the most serious offences in the Criminal Code, even in cases of consensual sex where there was negligible or no risk of HIV transmission, no actual transmission and no intent to transmit. The Undetectable=Untransmittable (“U=U”) campaign is based on scientific research, including the ground-breaking PARTNER study, establishing that when a person living with HIV on treatment maintains an undetectable viral load for at least six months, the risk of transmitting the virus through sex is effectively non-existent. As advocates for persons living with HIV await action from federal,...

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Conversations That Matter – Sex Workers and PrEP at CAHR 2017

The possible unintended consequences of the introduction of PrEP to the sex industry is something that has been discussed in international sex work advocacy since at least 2012. So, when I saw that new PrEP prescription guidelines for Canada were being drafted, stating that “sex-trade workers” were a “significant risk of having transmissible HIV,” I was troubled that there had been no community consultation whatsoever. National guidelines required a national convening.

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