“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times: said Charles Dickens. “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity." That was about Paris in 1869. It could have been written about Canada in 2017 and the state of our response to HIV. The best of times? Many feel we are approaching the end of the epidemic with 2030 set as the target date by UNAIDS. We are closing in on 90-90-90 targets which means more people li

Just a decade ago, Venezuela's AIDS program  was a model for countries throughout the developing world. Now it's a ruin. Recently, by way of our friends at the Canadian Positive People Network (CPPN), PositiveLite.com received an update on Venezuela's steadily worsening situation, along with an ask: "S.O.S. Venezuela: Urgent solidarity needed!" ran the header. Signed by ICASO Executive Director Mary Ann Torres, the appeal continued: "There is a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, the home c

A new US model of the cost-effectiveness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for men who have sex with men (MSM), prepared by researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, finds that taking even one year of PrEP is more cost-effective than measures like kidney dialysis, if it is used by people belonging to populations where HIV prevalence is at least 10%. However, for PrEP to actually save money, relative to the lifetime cost of treating the HIV infections that would otherwise happen, either

It was announced late last week by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care that after a successful recovery from a lengthy illness, Frank McGee is retiring from the Ontario Public Service. “Frank has been at the forefront of Ontario’s response to HIV” it said. “His contributions have helped Ontario become a leader in HIV/AIDS in Canada.” His retirement comes at a difficult time; new HIV infections in the province have risen in each of the last three years on record, where other ju

Club 120, Toronto, 2012. Photo courtesy of the author. Marvellous Grounds is the first publisher of this essay. Rahim Thawer (2017). Defending Uncritical Art has Consequences. In Special Issue #2 – Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto, Marvellous Grounds.  I grew up in Etobicoke and went to a racialized-majority middle school and then a white-majority high school. My undergraduate education spanned a few institutions, and in each one, I found enclaves of people o

The information below is adapted from an African context, Kenya being a part. As days go by, they turn to weeks, months, years, decades and then centuries; but at the rate we're going, the century will be a nightmare simply because this era is filled with deceit. People are easily confused and  filled with doubt. Many people living with HIV are falling to such deceits. Their condition makes them very desperate, to such an extent that they are moved easily by what people say and easily believ

Kenya, as a developing country, is among the African countries on the forefront in tackling HIV as well as investing personnel and resources. The government and the stake holders have done a lot though more needs to be done. The Kenyan government has given a favourable environment to stakeholders who wish to partake in this battle. Many organizations have set up facilities that offer HIV related services to people from the marginalised classes of life such as rural and slum populations. The s

Many of you might have been wondering where I disappeared to in the last few months. Truth be told, after my best friend's death I wasn’t really in the right place. I also gave up TV production to concentrate on my new diagnosis, my early onset dementia. Like a trooper I pushed forward, accomplishing more in four months than I ever did for the entire year. And I still am, but I’ll let you into a few personal secrets, so sit down. I felt like I’d done enough with HIV work; I was tired of

Earlier this week I was asked to write an article on rape and my experience as a male who has been a victim of rape in my adult life. I thought that I would have been able to jot down a few paragraphs and be done by the deadline, but here I am writing this article with only two hours left before the article is scrapped and my chances of writing for this highly esteemed LGBT magazine ever again are over and done. I thought that I would have been able to chronicle my experiences without having a

Today I was thinking about how the face of HIV has changed. I was telling my husband a story that I had long forgotten. In 1989, after 3 years of absolute celibacy, I found myself suddenly in a relationship with an HIV negative man. The terror of HIV loomed everywhere but I decided that, as scary as being tested was, I needed to do it. I tested HIV-positive on December 19, 1989 and had been in my new relationship for less than 3 months. Testing positive in 1989 was pretty much a “death