Pubdate: Wed, 26 Aug 2015
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2015 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Phil Tank
Page: A3

NEW STRATEGY AIMS TO CURB HIV 'EPIDEMIC'

Sask. rate much higher than national

A new plan to tackle Saskatchewan's HIV infection "epidemic" aims to
ensure 90 per cent of people living with the virus are diagnosed by
2020.

The diagnostic goal is one plank of a 90-90-90 plan adopted by the
World Health Organization in July that also aims to ensure 90 per cent
of people who are diagnosed receive treatment and that 90 per cent of
those being treated have the virus suppressed.

Saskatchewan's HIV diagnosis rate of 11.4 cases per 100,000 people in
2013 was nearly double the Canadian average of 5.9 cases, according to
Public Health Agency of Canada numbers. A new report urges the
province to adopt the 90-90-90 goal with a target date of five years
to achieve it.

Stryker Calvez, executive director of the Saskatchewan HIV/AIDS
Research Endeavour (SHARE), said Tuesday a similar strategy worked in
British Columbia, which led all provinces in HIV diagnoses in the mid-1990s.

"That's the goal," Calvez said of 90-90-90 by 2020. "At this point, it
is ambitious, but it is achievable."

The SHARE report outlining the strategy says about 27 per cent of
people infected with HIV in the province do not know they have the
virus, but Calvez pointed out this is an estimate.

Annual HIV diagnoses in Saskatchewan increased from 56 in 2004 to a
peak of 199 in 2009 before declining to 129 in 2013.

More than half of the 129 diagnoses (55 per cent) were traced to
injecting drugs, the "predominant" method of transmission since 2004,
followed by heterosexual sex (27 per cent). Two-thirds of the 2013
diagnoses were men and 68 per cent were aboriginal.

Those statistics contrast sharply with the national numbers for 2013,
when about 2,090 new cases were diagnosed. About half of transmissions
(49.3 per cent) were linked to gay male sex, followed by heterosexual
sex (29.6 per cent) and injecting drugs (12.8 per cent). Most new
cases were male (78 per cent) and of the 60 per cent who reported
their ethnicity, 49.4 per cent were Caucasian, 17.3 per cent were
black and 15.9 per cent were aboriginal.

"We're (in Saskatchewan) kind of in a similar place to where B.C. was
in the '90s," Calvez said. "We were caught off guard in the early 2000s."

The Saskatoon Health Region provides care to 42 per cent of the
caseload in the province, according to the report.

Saskatoon's Westside Community Clinic is currently managing 436
patients. Dr. Ryan Meili, who works at the clinic and coauthored the
report, said the higher incidence of HIV in the province means a new
strategy is needed.

"We have a serious problem here," Meili said Tuesday. "We need a
response that's more serious."

Meili said the higher rate of infection in Saskatchewan can be
explained partly by the "marginalization" of First Nations people.

The next step, Meili said, will be following up with Health Minister
Dustin Duncan to see what steps can be taken immediately.

Meili estimated the cost of supplying antiretroviral drugs to current
HIV patients to be less than $500,000. He pointed out successfully
suppressing HIV can reduce transmission - a fact he acknowledged not
many people realize - and mean fewer cases.

"If we invest a little bit now, we'll save a whole lot down the road,"
he said.

The SHARE report also points out the hepatitis C diagnosis rate in
Saskatchewan also eclipses the national numbers at 62.2 per 100,000 in
2011, compared to 29.3 nationally. The word "epidemic" is used in
reference to both diseases in the report.
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MAP posted-by: Matt