Latest News Stories

Image credit: Reginald Mount, ‘The easy girlfriend’ (poster), Norwich: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1943-44. This file comes from Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom. Refer to Wellcome blog post (archive). This article by Daniel Reeders previously appeared at Overland, here. Two or three times a year, there’ll be a major conference on sexual health, or a report released on how many new sexually tr

(Vancouver, January 31, 2018) A new study shows most of gay, bi, men who have sex with men (MSM) and other MSM, are aware of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) - an HIV prevention drug recently made available at no charge to British Columbians at risk of HIV - according to the Momentum Health Study at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. “Gay, bisexual, MSM and other MSM in Canada accounted for 56.8% of all new cases of HIV in Canada,” says research scientist, Nathan Lachowsky. “Incre

The staff and board of directors of CATIE were deeply distressed to learn about the deaths of Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi and Dean Lisowick. We extend our condolences to the families and friends of the victims and our colleagues at the Toronto HIV/AIDS Network and the Toronto People With AIDS Foundation, where Andrew Kinsman worked and volunteered. We also offer our support for the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, which has called for an external review

Testing: Digital services will allow people to carry out tests at home, but the rollout has been delayed. To read the complete story by Eleanor Rose, visit The Evening Standard, here. Up to 600 people per week are being turned away from oversubscribed sexual health clinics at one of London’s NHS trusts, an expert has warned. Dr Mark Lawton of the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV said the data showing hundreds of people are being turned away from clinic at Guy’s and St Tho

After years spent waiting, more widespread access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in Ontario finally seems to be taking shape. Health Canada approval for generic forms of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine (the drug combination used for PrEP) has drastically decreased out of pocket costs for PrEP.  This development, along with concerted lobbying from HIV activists, also led to the addition of PrEP to the Ontario Drug Benefit formulary in September 2017. While these changes don’t

For the first time, scientists have shown a relationship between the proportion of key immune cells that display high levels of a gut-homing protein called alpha-4 beta-7 at the time of HIV infection and health outcomes. Previous research illustrated this relationship in monkeys infected with a simian form of HIV. The new study found that women who had more CD4+ T cells displaying high levels of alpha-4 beta-7 on their surface were more likely to become infected with HIV, and the virus damage

This article originallly appeared on January 16, 2018 If 2017 was a good year for many people living with HIV, it was for a simple, three character slogan that seemed to be everywhere. POZ.com, in awarding Undetectable equals Untransmittable, or U=U, the campaign of the year described it as “perhaps the most discussed and rapidly shared message to hit the HIV arena in years”. The Washington Post called it  “the campaign credited with beginning to change public perception of HIV trans

The majority of HIV-positive women diagnosed with gynaecological cancer do not receive treatment recommended by cancer guidelines, according to research conducted in the United States and published in AIDS. Women whose care did not match guideline standards had poorer survival compared to women who received the recommended care. Toxicity and patient factors were the main reasons why women did not receive treatment recommended in guidelines. “To our knowledge, there is no case series de

The partnerships forged between people living with HIV and researchers have been an essential foundation upon which the response to the HIV epidemic has grown and the time has come to reaffirm and recommit to principles of inclusion and respect in the conduct of presenting research findings that impacts on our lives. The early years of the HIV epidemic ushered in a radically different approach to traditional medical and clinical research. Academics and activists held a shared understanding th

This article by Dennis Altman prevously appeared at The Conversation, here. The rise of sexually transmissible diseases made front-page news in The Age, which tried to make sense of the rise among “gay men” and “heterosexual people”. This illustrates the increasingly common confusion between behaviour and identity. What is involved is sexual contact, or to use the expression common in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, “the exchange of bodily fluids”. Whether people involve

- People living with HIV are known to be at increased risk for smoking-related illnesses. - Researchers find varenicline safe and effective at helping people with HIV quit smoking. - Cessation counsellors who are infectious disease specialists have higher quit rates. The widespread use of potent HIV treatment (ART) has led to improved measures of health and near-normal life expectancy for many people with HIV in Canada and other high-income countries. However, studies have found that ART us

Leading Toronto researchers and clinicians invite you to a discussion of how HIV prevention tools are improving and combine to get us to zero new infections. (Speakers: Sharmistha Mishra, Rupert Kaul, Malika Sharma, Beth Rachlis, Taylor Sicard, Isaac Bogoch, Abigail Kroch.  Moderator: R. Reinhard) When: Wednesday, February 7, 2018 6:30-8:30 PM Where: Hart House Music Room (U. of Toronto campus) Elevator and access ramp accessible. Light refreshments will be provided. Please RVSP by email

Low-level HIV viral load, above the limit of detection, is an important warning signal for future treatment failure and World Health Organization guidelines on spotting treatment failure need to be revised to encourage greater vigilance and swifter action by healthcare providers in lower- and middle-income settings, investigators report in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The study, carried out by Annemarie Wensing and colleagues at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and University

It has been five years since that day you were attacked and raped and as a result of that rape you were transmitted the HIV virus. On the day you find out that you are HIV-positive you are instantly thrown into a whirlwind of psychological and biological warfare mixed with 24 years of emotional baggage that we should have let go years ago, but nothing fuels a grudge better than anger. Right now you’re probably somewhere in a hotel room, getting high as a Georgia pine, listening to Erykah B

Colour me bad When I was diagnosed in 1993, I continued to work for six months, my life virtually unchanged except for a heavy heart and a secret few knew. I had time, though, to ponder the card that fate had dealt me. In 1994 I decided change was in order. So I left work for good, disclosed to everybody in sight and plunged into volunteerism. My first volunteer job involved manning the reception desk at ACT, then called the AIDS Committee of Toronto.  I thrived. During quiet times at the r