BC a world leader in combating HIV/AIDS

Blog Author: Kashmira Suraliwalla

BC scientists, researchers, physicians, and allied health care workers once again deserve credit for making our province a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Housed at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) was applauded for its Treatment as Prevention strategy. Recently, the strategy was named breakthrough of the year by Science magazine and a medical breakthrough for 2012 by Readers Digest. Time magazine recognized the high value of Treatment as Prevention and ranked it as one of its top-10 medical breakthroughs.

Treatment as Prevention calls for widespread HIV testing and provision of anti-HIV drugs generally referred to as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Benefits of HAART treatment for medically eligible HIV-positive individuals is twofold—it reduces the level of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels, which improves the health of persons with HIV, and decreases the level of HIV in sexual fluids, thereby reducing the transmission of HIV by more than 95%.

Treatment as Prevention is recognized and supported by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, and China has even implemented a national HIV/AIDS policy based on the strategy. Similar programs are undergoing evaluation by the local health authorities in San Francisco, the Bronx in New York, Washington, DC, and by the Clinton Health Initiative in Swaziland.

Dr Julio Montaner, director BC-CfE and Chair in AIDS Research at UBC, is a co-winner of the 2011 Hope is a Vaccine award. This award is presented to individuals leading the international fight against HIV/AIDS.

Treatment as Prevention has revolutionized HIV patient care, decreased HIV/AIDS related suffering, and stemmed the spread of HIV/AIDS. As Dr Stephen Toope of UBC  states in the release, “an HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence.”

Congratulations to Dr Montaner and the BC-CfE team for such pioneering work in improving the lives of so many. We in BC have much to be proud of.