hiv

The Edson Leader

 

HIV West Yellowhead officials are still looking for regional board members.

 

The Jasper-based organization put out a call for three more board members earlier his summer. While a Hinton board member has been secured, executive director Andrea Watson said two more persons have expressed interest but have not committed as of yet.

 

Watson is hoping to recruit two more board members — one from Edson and one from Whitecourt.

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By: Mitchel Raphael, Macleans

 

NDP MP Libby Davies returned to Canada last week after attending the XVIII International AIDS conference in Vienna. Jet lag prevented her from attending a rally with iconic singer Annie Lennox, but she was the only North American MP to participate in the first-ever politicians panel at the conference.

 

Davies was pleased with the conference’s Vienna Declaration, which endorses drug harm-reduction models like the safe-injection health facility Insite located in her East Vancouver riding.

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By Victoria Handysides, Here NB

 

Moncton - The 90s, a decade full of hot topics, is behind us: O.J. Simpsonl, the Gulf War, the world's first cloned sheep, the massacre at Columbine and the disease known as AIDS.

 

It's insensitive and callous, but true: any panicked outcry about the sexually transmitted disease has been muted to mere mumbling. It rarely makes headlines, and (forgive the phrasing) isn't the "hot" disease that it once was.

 

"This is a disease whose patient's faces aren't plastered across billboards. They're not thought of as survivors or heroes," AIDS Moncton spokeswoman Kate Doyle said.

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By Niamh Scallan, TheTyee.ca

 

Condoms and clean needles. Two basic remedies that could help stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic dead in its tracks.

 

It's that simple, says Maxine Davis, executive director of the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation and Canada's leading voice when it comes to AIDS treatment.

 

If only the government would listen.

 

At the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna last month, Davis and Canadian colleagues watched as their government, refusing to stand behind the Vienna Declaration, slipped from its respected leadership role in the global fight against the disease.

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By Grant Warkentin - Campbell River Mirror

 

Even if they wanted to, the city’s crack cocaine users can’t “get clean” because there are few treatment programs available.

 

The findings were released in a new study which relyed on interviews with crack users in Campbell River, Nanaimo and Prince George.

 

“Numerous study participants stated that even going for detoxification would make little sense for them, since there are so few available treatment options to enter after detoxification,” the study’s authors wrote, “and most users end up in their previous drug-use environments and habits.

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By Richard Elliott, Vancouver Sun

 

Re: Ideology, not reality, drives Tories' AIDS policy, July 24

 

Peter McKnight's column nicely showcased the flawed logic in the government's approach to HIV/AIDS, where relevant evidence is ignored.

 

One area not specifically addressed is the high rates of HIV and hepatitis C in Canada's prisons. We argue -with ample evidence to back it up -that providing clean needles and syringes in prisons would help curtail the spread of disease. More than 90 per cent of people in prison eventually return to society. Doesn't it make sense to ensure that the least possible number of them acquire infections while inside?

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By Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen

 

It's safe to assume most people have never heard of the "Vienna Declaration." And that simple fact helps explain why public policies that fail -- policies that do vastly more harm than good -- can live on despite overwhelming evidence of their failure.

 

The Vienna Declaration, published in the medical journal The Lancet, is an official statement of the 18th International AIDS Conference, which wraps up today in Vienna. Drafted by an international team of public health experts, including Evan Wood of the University of British Columbia, the Vienna Declaration seeks to "improve community health and safety" by, in the words of the committee, "calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies."

 

Please don't stop reading. I promise this will not turn into another of my rants about the catastrophic failure of drug prohibition. I've been writing variations on that theme for more than a decade now and everyone knows I am a crazed extremist whose views are not to be trusted by decent folk. I'll spare you.

 

Instead, I will merely present a few sentences from the Vienna Declaration:

 

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By MINDY JACOBS, Toronto Sun

 

Over the centuries, scientists who dared to challenge rulers of the day often found themselves in jail. Today, politicians who prefer ideology over truth just stick their fingers in their ears.

 

The key statement that emerged from last week’s International AIDS Conference was a declaration asking governments to base their drug policies on scientific evidence.

 

So far, about 14,000 people have signed the so called Vienna declaration, including Nobel Laureates, former heads of state, religious leaders and experts in science, medicine and law.

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By: Dale Smith, Xtra News

 

Nearly six months after the federal government announced that it would not be going ahead with a planned HIV vaccine manufacturing facility as part of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI), they announced where the $139 million would be going.

 

From the World AIDS Conference in Vienna, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq made the announcement.

 

Of the $139 million, the redistribution would see $102 million go toward improving basic science in developing countries, with an eye on developing clinical vaccine trials there while working to improve regulatory capacity in Canada and those developing countries. So far, far $51 million has been spent.

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By: Pamela Post, Globe and Mail

 

It’s a Tuesday afternoon and Constable Linda Malcolm is patrolling the streets of the Downtown Eastside in street clothes. Today it’s a Beatles T-shirt and beige pants.

 

A police uniform, says the sex industry liaison officer for the Vancouver Police Department, is a huge barrier to building relationships with people down here. Her badge and gun are discreetly concealed. On the streets, Constable Malcolm is regularly approached by women who know her simply as Linda, who hug her before launching into a litany of woes and grievances.

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