hiv
'Incomprehensible' that AIDS resources are flatlining: Stephen Lewis
By: Jill Mahoney, Globe and MailStephen Lewis, a former United Nations envoy on AIDS in Africa, calls the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis the “most difficult and damaging pandemic we’ve ever experienced.”
In advance of World AIDS Day, which is on Dec. 1, Mr. Lewis spoke to The Globe and Mail about the “tremendous amount of work” that remains, funding that is “flat lining and reducing,” the Canadian government’s lack of resolve and Pope Benedict's recent condom comments.
Mr. Lewis, whose Stephen Lewis Foundation helps people affected by the disease, is speaking Monday night in Toronto in an event dubbed The Great Canadian Conversation about HIV/AIDS in Africa.
IV drug policy fails HIV patients: Red Cross
CBC NewsThe spread of HIV and AIDS among millions of people could be slowed if addicts who inject drugs were treated as medical patients rather than as criminals, the International Federation of the Red Cross said Friday.
More than 80 per cent of the world's governments "are inclined to artificial realities, impervious to the evidence that treating people who inject drugs as criminals is a failed policy that contributes to the spread of HIV," the Red Cross said.
An estimated 16 million people worldwide inject drugs, mainly because it delivers the fastest, most intense high, in what has become a growing trend on every continent, according to the Red Cross.
HIV/AIDS numbers continue to rise in Saskatchewan
It is a difficult fact to comprehend: more than 33 million people around the world live with H.I.V/AIDS.
In Saskatchewan, the number of cases has risen every year since 2002.
As International AIDS Awareness Week kicks off, the numbers are once again coming to light.
Intravenous drug use is the highest cause of HIV transmission in Saskatchewan. Last year in Regina over 1,000,000 needles were exchanged, but even with the needle exchange program, new case numbers have increased.
In fact, more people per capital in Saskatchewan were diagnosed than anywhere across Canada.
20 years after Dr. Peter, we need leadership to fight HIV-AIDS
By: Maxine Davis, Globe and MailTwenty years ago, when AIDS was a fearsome disease, Peter Jepson-Young spoke directly to British Columbians on the CBC’s evening news. “I am going to introduce you to someone who has AIDS,” he said. “I’m a doctor, but I’m also a patient … a patient with AIDS.”
It was a profound act of courage in an era when being gay was not openly talked about, let alone having HIV-AIDS. Discrimination was rampant – some government officials said people with HIV-AIDS should be banished to a remote island. His parents feared for his safety, and the doctor himself kept his last name hidden, even while inviting the spotlight on television.
New Research Cites Numerous Benefits for Insite and Supports Accepted Scientific Analysis of Supervised Injection Facilities
B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDSVancouver, British Columbia, Canada, September 8, 2010 – The Canadian Medical Association Journal has published a new review of Insite that shows Vancouver’s supervised injecting facility reduces the harms of drug addiction, increases uptake into drug treatment and rehabilitation programs, and helps reduce adverse community impacts of addiction in various ways, such as decreasing used needles.
The findings cited in the CMAJ article are similar to those reported by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS based on its extensive peer-reviewed research of Insite.
Women prisoners make love, guards leer
By: Shawn Syms, Xtra NewsAccording to RCMP policy — specifically section 19.3.5.4.2 — "limitations of space and guard personnel will exist in some locations, necessitating opposite-gender monitoring of prisoners, but, where possible and practical, reasonable effort should be made to ensure that prisoner modesty is preserved." But four RCMP officers (and three civilian staff members) at a Kamloops, BC, police station apparently thought it was okay to watch female prisoners having sex in a holding cell on Aug 18.
HIV West Yellowhead seeks members
The Edson LeaderHIV West Yellowhead officials are still looking for regional board members.
The Jasper-based organization put out a call for three more board members earlier his summer. While a Hinton board member has been secured, executive director Andrea Watson said two more persons have expressed interest but have not committed as of yet.
Watson is hoping to recruit two more board members — one from Edson and one from Whitecourt.
An MP’s starring role in Vienna
By: Mitchel Raphael, MacleansNDP MP Libby Davies returned to Canada last week after attending the XVIII International AIDS conference in Vienna. Jet lag prevented her from attending a rally with iconic singer Annie Lennox, but she was the only North American MP to participate in the first-ever politicians panel at the conference.
Davies was pleased with the conference’s Vienna Declaration, which endorses drug harm-reduction models like the safe-injection health facility Insite located in her East Vancouver riding.
The forgotten epidemic
By Victoria Handysides, Here NBMoncton - The 90s, a decade full of hot topics, is behind us: O.J. Simpsonl, the Gulf War, the world's first cloned sheep, the massacre at Columbine and the disease known as AIDS.
It's insensitive and callous, but true: any panicked outcry about the sexually transmitted disease has been muted to mere mumbling. It rarely makes headlines, and (forgive the phrasing) isn't the "hot" disease that it once was.
"This is a disease whose patient's faces aren't plastered across billboards. They're not thought of as survivors or heroes," AIDS Moncton spokeswoman Kate Doyle said.
'HIV Policy Rubbish': Expert Slams Canada's 'Backwards' Approach
By Niamh Scallan, TheTyee.caCondoms and clean needles. Two basic remedies that could help stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic dead in its tracks.
It's that simple, says Maxine Davis, executive director of the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation and Canada's leading voice when it comes to AIDS treatment.
If only the government would listen.
At the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna last month, Davis and Canadian colleagues watched as their government, refusing to stand behind the Vienna Declaration, slipped from its respected leadership role in the global fight against the disease.
