STOP HIV/AIDS with Dr. Montaner

Somehow I always manage to spot Dr. Julio Montaner in the news.  It could be because I have a bit of a thing for pioneering Argentine doctors (this is Miriam speaking, not Janet!), but it’s more likely because Dr. Montaner has been in the news a lot lately.  He’s been busy garnering support for his ambitious pilot project – “Seek and Treat for Optimal Prevention of HIV/AIDS” (STOP HIV/AIDS).  The goal of the project is to increase access to HIV treatment and care among vulnerable communities in B.C. while decreasing the HIV transmission rate.  How would it work?

Even though highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is available for free in B.C., not everybody is getting it.  For example, only 13-18% of HIV positive Aboriginal people who qualify for HAART are actually receiving it.  The homeless, poor, mentally ill, men who have sex with men and injection drug users are also not accessing treatment as much as they could be.  Part of Dr. Montaner’s plan is to provide rapid HIV testing and HAART right in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside while connecting people living with HIV/AIDS to healthcare and support services including Positive Women’s Network.  If this pilot project is successful, then it could be applied throughout the province.

But isn’t Dr. Montaner the guy who’s advocating for more people to receive treatment earlier in order to reduce the spread of HIV?  Right-o, he is.  Apparently it’s been the medical community’s best kept secret for years – HAART can actually diminish the risk of HIV transmission.  Montaner and his team at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS have done some number crunching.  They found that if HAART treatment was made available to more people so that even just 75% of those who are eligible were receiving it, the number of new infections each year would decrease by 37%.  This is significant considering that right now only 50% of eligible British Columbians are receiving treatment and the number of new infections per year is expected to rise if nothing changes.  And because it’s B.C.’s most vulnerable communities that are not accessing HAART, we can expect these same populations to be disproportionately affected by the increase.

At the moment the success of the project depends on more funding, in particular from the federal government.  I’ll keep scanning for Dr. Montaner’s photo in the news and we’ll keep you posted on the project’s progress.

-Miriam

This was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, News . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.

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  Melissa May 29, 2009 at 11:59 am

  Great blog, Miriam, thanks for writing about Dr. Montaner’s project!

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