Photo: Motswari Mofokeng Rob Easton: Minister Philpott, thank you for taking the time for this interview with PositiveLite.com. Jane Philpott: My pleasure. You’ve had a very busy few weeks with health accords and a number of different announcements. How challenging is it to get HIV on the list of priorities, both within your ministry, and also around the cabinet table? I think it would be fair to say that HIV and other sexually transmitted and blood born infections have not b

Lately on PositiveLite.com there has been quite a bit of buzz about the PARTNER study - not only about its fantastic findings, but also about the HIV organisations who are slow to acknowledge the full implications of the results. There is even a campaign - Prevention Access Campaign's Undetectable = Uninfectious -  to change this. Recommended reading on the topic has to include ‘Will HIV Ever Be Safe Enough For You’ which is one of my new favourite blog posts by Mark S. King, who hit the

More money – but not yet for Canada “Canada can do more” said Canada’s likeable new Health Minister Jane Philpott in a recent Globe and Mail interview. She’s right of course. So why aren’t we doing more? Opinions may vary. Certainly after just coming back from from South Africa and hearing how other countries far less wealthy than Canada are beating us in PrEP, treatment coverage, testing options, surveillance (tracking and number crunching) and even on  more progressive crimina

This article by Julio Montaner, Director, British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Ryan Meili, and Ryan Meili, Expert Advisor, EvidenceNetwork.ca first appeared in www.troymedia.com.  VANCOUVER, BC, and SASKATOON, SK/ Troy Media/ - Canadians are rightly proud of the universal coverage provided by our national healthcare system. Sadly, there are gaps in access with very grave consequences. In regions across the country, care and treatment is failing to reach those living with HI

This article first appeared ion the ICAD website here.   Twenty years ago, when I was treating a patient who was HIV infected, I would have to advise them of personal considerations such as shortened life span, and risk of transmitting the virus to sexual partners or during childbirth. At the time, an HIV diagnosis was a drastically life-altering event. Today, if a young woman with HIV infection comes to me for treatment, I can tell her she can live a full life through drug treatment – u

We have learned that Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE), at St. Paul’s Hospital, is one of six Canadian physicians nominated to the prestigious Canadian Medical Hall of Fame for 2015.  The Canadian Medical Hall of Fame Laureates are individuals whose outstanding contributions to medicine and the health sciences have led to extraordinary improvements in human health. PositiveLite.com has interviewed Dr. Montaner on three separate occasions in

In my recent article about Dr. Julio Montaner here I remarked that the doctor, head of the British Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the world’s leading proponent of treatment as prevention (TasP)) was much loved and highly regarded by his patients.  There is more proof in the form of a recent article in POZ magazine  which reported that a group of his patients who are benefiting from his TasP strategy wish to advocate for it’s expansion to all of Canada. Said one patient to Posit

The big picture: the evidence is in that it works “It’s time” was the unofficial theme, or perhaps subtext, of the International Treatment as Prevention Workshop held last week in Vancouver, a gathering of policy and decision makers, researchers and community from around the world. Altogether 250 delegates came from 41 countries to review progress and plan next steps.  PositiveLite.com was there. Next steps do not necessarily call for gathering yet further evidence to prove that treat

  Sean Hosein, CATIE’s Science and Medicine editor, has been chronicling what’s new in HIV treatment for 25 years. (We recently reported on the 200th issue of his prime body of work, TreatmentUpdate here. Now PositiveLite.com editor Bob Leahy sits down with the ever-knowledgeable Sean (below right) once again – he first interviewed him in April 2013  - to review how our concept of HIV treatment has changed over the years and continues to evolve.      Bob Leahy: Hi Sean. Thank y

New research from British Columbia demonstrates sustained efficacy of treatment expansion in reducing HIV transmission, morbidity, and mortality Vancouver, B.C. [February 2014] — British Columbia’s success in fighting HIV and AIDS has renewed calls for the global expansion of the province’s Treatment as Prevention strategy. According to a new study from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, the expansion of HIV treatment in B