The CBC this week reported Health Canada will allow men to donate blood if they haven't had sex with a man in the last five years, a change in policy that will go into effect in the coming weeks. Here is a statement from the Canadian AIDS Society received May 22. 

Ottawa, ON – The Canadian AIDS Society (CAS) acknowledges that Health Canada today approved a change to the blood donor deferral period currently imposed on men who have sex with men (MSM) from indefinite to five years from last MSM activity.

The Canadian AIDS Society has, along with other LGBT groups and patient groups, worked to support a proposal from Canadian Blood Services to Health Canada in December 2012 to change the MSM policy on blood donation. The proposal also calls for regular reviews based on scientific data to be collected.

CAS has been an active partner with Canadian Blood Services and others, working for many years to support the five-year time-based deferral as an incremental step towards a behaviour-based screening model for blood donation. Monique Doolittle-Romas, Chief Executive Officer of CAS said, “While a five-year deferral is still too long, we see it as an important step in the right direction. Ultimately, though, we’d like to see a model based on a donor’s behaviour rather than one based on sexual orientation and gender.”

With this important shift in the blood donation policy, CAS believes that there will be an opportunity to gather further evidence to create an even shorter time frame for the deferral in the future. However, Health Canada must continue their support through an increased commitment to research in this area.

“Protecting the safety of the blood supply in Canada has always been and will always be an important issue for the Canadian AIDS Society,” Doolittle-Romas reiterated

My partner and I were both diagnosed HIV, around about the same time.

2003 was the worst year ever. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I didn't even get my bum on the seat and the doctor had blurted out "your results have come back positive". I sat there numb, in shock, then started crying. I had only ever heard of Freddie Mercury from Queen dying from AIDS so I instantly thought I was going to die. The doctor told me I was being stupid. Ten years later, here I am, still alive writing this guest blog

My partner and I managed to keep the diagnosis quiet, like a dirty secret, for three years until it all came to a head.

My partner took seriously ill. He was rushed to hospital in an ambulance ,with blue lights flashing and sirens wailing. It was the talk of the small village where we lived at the time. The rumour mill went into overdrive. Even a cashier in the local supermarket had the nerve to ask his dad if the rumours were true. She ended up with half a dozen eggs on her head, free range at that.That’s a small village for you.

In any event, he was taken to Ward 42 at the Western General Hospital which is where HIV patients are treated. i knew then it was all going to come out.

His sister and dad arrived at the hospital. She knew in her gut what I was about to say before I even said it. I just blurted it out then started crying. I am known for liking a good cry. You should see the state I get in watching "Beaches"

He was put on fluids, taken for MRI scans and put on antiretrovirals - Kaletra if I remember. He had a lumber puncture which missed the diagnosis of a brain virus. By the time they did a second lumber puncture it was too late. His CD4 count was down to 4. About four weeks after his admission he was put on life support when his lungs collapsed and he went into a coma which was said to be irreversible. That was the worst time ever. We had to plan a funeral  - I still have the disc of 4 songs that were picked -  as the consultant said there was no way back from the coma

But eight days later he was awake. It was like a miracle. He was put on feeding drips and had to have a catheter fitted. He would sleep all day and be awake all night. He was having up to 24 showers a night; in his mind he needed to shower to be warmed up. For the first four months he had no idea he was even in the hospital, no knowledge of anything that was happening around him. Without the staff on the ward and his consultants Dr Wilkes and Lisa, I don't think he would have made it

Life insurance policies and mortgage insurance in the U.K do not cover HIV, unless you are prepared to pay mega huge premiums, so in between all the hospital stuff we had to get a lawyer to do a bankruptcy on him. We lost the apartment and the business, three shops that my partner had built up to a worldwide business via the web. It was a terrible time. Apart from with his sister, the HIV was never spoken about. His illness was always referred to as "the brain virus". Why I don't know, but it was. Still to this day, eight years later, it’s called "the brain virus"

The brain virus affected the memory part of his brain so to this day he still has no short term memory. Everything has to be written on sheets of paper or he will forget in seconds what he has just been told.

I lived in the hospital for eight months while he was being treated. I was suffering from stress and my own health was suffering. I lost loads of weight and was looking ill, just as he was beginning to look healthy. But after eight months he was sent to a respite unit for brain injuries. Most people in there had been in car crashes and had severe injuries. He was only there for a month just to get him used to simple things like shopping and exercise.

After a total of eight months in hospital and a month in the brain unit, nine months in total, he was allowed home. It was the best day ever when he got out. We had rib-eye steak with fries to celebrate. After that, we had to live with his parents as we had lost our apartment. It was stressful for them too as they were used to living by themselves and here they were with two grown adults.

We had to apply to the state to see what benefits he was entitled to. He was entitled to Disability Living Allowance as he is classed as having a severe disability. Myself, well I suffer depression for which I get treatment and my HIV results are always good when I get my blood drawn every three month. My consultant Dr Gordon Scott is a living legend. Without his wise words and help I think I would have given up a long time ago.

It’s been five years since he was in hospital. He can’t work as his short term memory is non-existent.He keeps in touch with everybody through his Facebook account. I work part time in an HIV respite centre in Edinburgh. It’s a great job where every day is different. It was opened by the late Princess Diana 20 odd years ago when AIDS was a big taboo. She came and touched AIDS patients.

We lost everything we had to HIV. Gone are the six times a year visits to the States. You learn to live with what you have. Apart from our families we don't really keep in touch with anyone, apart from my dearest friend David in Toronto, whom we have visited. It seems to have made us very withdrawn. We are quite happy in our small house with our two cats, Fluffy and Lucky and our garden. I like to bake cakes.

We still keep our diagnosis to ourselves. It’s nobody's business but ours and in Scotland. especially in the small village where we live, it still has a large amount of stigma attached to it. If it was cancer we would get loads of sympathy but HIV gets no sympathy, as in Edinburgh, it's still thought of as that gay disease.

Small town mentality I call it. It’s still our dirty secret.

About the author: A gay man, happily partnered for 20 odd years, living in Edinburgh  - or Auld Reekie as some people call it.

Contrary to some hysterically hyped headlines this past week, HIV is not on the verge of being cured in the next three months, nor have scientists found an effective vaccine.

The truth is that a hopeful compound to force HIV out of hiding is under study, and the results should be known in the near future. Unfortunately, however, even if researchers hit a home run with this drug, it won't likely be a cure by itself and we will still be waiting for the day that we have a vaccine or other types of immune therapy to help the body kill any remaining infected cells. 

Let's unpack the hype. Last week the London Daily Telegraph ran a story on this new compound, but claimed that a cure was just around the corner. The reporter apparently misquoted the researcher and overly hyped what he'd been told. The reporter has since toned down his piece and changed the headline due to pressure from a prominent activist in England and likely due in part to a piece the researchers themselves felt compelled to post to refute the article's claims. Unfortunately, the press outside of London grabbed hold and has been retreading the original uncorrected story since then.

Here is the real story. First, contrary to some reports there is no actual vaccine involved at this point. That's probably the most mystifying and frustrating thing. Instead, there is a class of drugs that helps cause HIV that is bound up inside the DNA of resting immune cells to begin reproducing. If we want to cure HIV, then that's the first thing we'll have to do -- to unmask the hidden HIV. The class of drugs is called HDAC inhibitors.

Thus far, there have been four studies of this class of drug. Two were conducted with a very weak form called valproic acid that ultimately had no effect. Two more recent studies were with a drug called vorinostat and showed at least transient increases in HIV RNA production from latent cells, indicating activity, but the effect was also somewhat weak and didn't have the ultimate effect we'd want to see, which is to reduce the amount of HIV DNA there. That would tell us that we are actually reducing the size of the HIV reservoir.

The researchers in Denmark are using a more potent HDAC inhibitor called panobinostat. All of us in the cure advocacy arena have good hopes about the drug, but it is a very, very long way from being a cure all by itself and the very small Phase I study being run by the Danish researchers has yet to publicly report any results. Panobinostat may turn out to be a potent way to kick start HIV replication, but we'll probably have to pair it with a vaccine in order to kill those latent cells that panobinostat has woken up. Unfortunately, we're quite a ways away from having such a vaccine.

It says something quite sad about the state of science journalism in general that articles like this make it out the door. The hype that never pans out ultimately makes people so skeptical about the kind of work Project Inform advocates for and reports on. It's also sadly the case that stories like this, where the reporter, or the researcher -- or both -- hypes a study and claims a cure is just around the corner are all too common. We'll do our best to set the record straight when these arise.

This article original appeared in TheBody.com here.

“I’ve been told that I can look forward to a tremendous reduction in stress and anxiety about seroconverting. I look forward to that. We’ll see. “ 

On April 5, 2013 I took my first dose of Truvada as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). I won’t deny it. I’ve been feeling very conflicted about starting PrEP.  

Why do I have access to Truvada when the majority of people who need antiretroviral medication to stay alive don’t have access? I got my hands on this bottle relatively easily. The social injustice is not lost on me. I don’t have relatively easy access to this medication because I deserve it more than anyone else.

So what HAVE I done to deserve access to PrEP? Well, a lot of it is sheer luck, actually.

•    Nearly every time I see the news, I am amazed at how lucky I am. I was born in Canada. Talk about winning the lottery. Out of 7 billion people, I am one of only 34 million people living in Canada. Trust me, it’s a great place to live!

•    I’ve been working in HIV for 20 years, including the last 10 years focussed on tracking biomedical HIV prevention research. This provides me with ongoing access to the latest information.

•    I make a good living. I can access healthcare relatively easily and generally for free or at a cost that has little impact on my standard of living.

•    I have a doctor. He’s young (My age. That’s young. Shut up.), gay, and sees a lot of people living with HIV in his practice. So talking to him about my sex life and about PrEP was not difficult. He keeps up to date on research. After a good discussion, he agreed to prescribe PrEP.

•    Not only do I live in Canada, but I live in Québec, the only province to have a universal public drug plan. As long as the drugs my doctor prescribes are on the provincial drug formulary, I am covered for most of the cost. I pay $500 into the drug plan annually, and PrEP will cost me less than $1,000/year on top of that. And if I ever need other drugs for any reason, I will not pay for them. Because $992/year ($82.66/month to be precise) is the most I would have to pay for all my drugs combined.

I’m not trying to be disingenuous. I know that beyond being lucky and privileged, I have access to PrEP because I’ve taken some very concrete steps as well. I did lots of introspection. I tried to reduce my risk as much as possible through other means. I did a lot of research. I actively sought out access. I make sure I’m very diligent about taking my pills.

I always have been very diligent about that. I take all my antibiotics when I need them. I take vitamins daily. When I was on antidepressants, I never missed a dose in 1.5 years. I follow advice from medical professionals to the letter. Case in point: I’ve needed physiotherapy twice. Both times, the conversation during my second visit went something like this:

Physiotherapist: Wow, you’re made remarkable progress in one week. I’ve never seen anyone progress so quickly with this type of injury. Which exercises did you do?

Me: All of them, like you showed me.

PT: You did ALL the exercise I gave you?! How often?

Me: Every day, like you told me.

PT: You did ALL your exercise EVERY day?! How many times a day?

Me: Twice, like you told me.

PT: You did ALL your exercises, EVERY day, TWICE a day?! I’ve never seen this in all my years of practice! No wonder you’re doing so well!

*SLAP* You’re at risk of HIV!

I might make jokes, but I don’t take this lightly.

Every morning when I wake up it’s the first thing I think about. That might stop after a while. But two weeks into taking PrEP, it’s the same thing. I wake up, and as I ponder about whether I want to go back to sleep again for a little longer, I can’t do it. I immediately think: when I get up I have to take my Truvada pill. Because I’m at risk of HIV.

Each and every time I open the cupboard and grab the bottle, I think: how is it possible that I am so lucky to have such easy access to this medication when millions of people who need it to stay alive don’t have access?

Who needs a coffee? I get a slap in my face every morning. Two of them in fact.

*SLAP* You’re at risk of HIV and STIs!

*SLAP* You’re one of the lucky few who has access to this medication and to this prevention option!

I’ve been told that I can look forward to a tremendous reduction in stress and anxiety about seroconverting. I look forward to that. We’ll see. I’m not there yet by any stretch. But at least I get some measure of comfort from knowing that I’m putting chances on my side by reducing my risk as much as I can in my current situation. Doing my best to stay healthy seems like the right thing to do to honour those who don’t have access to this drug.

About the author: Marc-André LeBlanc has worked in the community-based HIV/AIDS movement for 20 years.He does community engagement, capacity-building and policy work related to biomedical HIV prevention research, both in Canada and globally. He is a co-founder of International Rectal Microbicide Advocates (IRMA), serves as secretary on their steering committee, has authored two reports on the global state of rectal microbicide efforts, and leads IRMA’s global efforts to ensure the safety of sexual lubricants. Marc-André loves movies. He got a film studies degree while working full-time, just for the sheer fun of it. He is now leading advocacy efforts to get ice cream and popcorn recognised as new basic food groups in Canada’s Food Guide

This article originally appeared on My PrEP Experience here.