MONTREAL — Ahead of a major international AIDS conference in Montreal, researchers and officials on Wednesday promoted the progress toward finding a cure for HIV but lamented how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global fight against the disease.
A report released Wednesday by UNAIDS — the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS — said about 1.5 million people were infected with HIV in 2021. That number is 3.6 per cent less than the year before but the smallest drop in the number of new infections since 2016.
UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told reporters in Montreal that global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, are responsible for “derailing” progress against HIV.
“The response to the AIDS pandemic has been derailed by global crises, from the colliding pandemics of HIV and COVID, to the war in Ukraine and the resulting global economic crisis,” Byanyima said.
In the Asia and Pacific region, Byanyima added, the number of new infections rose in 2021 after declining for several years. In other parts of the world, she said, progress has stalled.
Approximately 650,000 people died from HIV in 2021, according to the United Nations.
“If these trends continue, we could see 7.7 million additional AIDS-related deaths in this decade,” Byanyima said.
The report arrived two days before the beginning of AIDS 2022, the 24th International AIDS Conference, in Montreal. More than 9,000 researchers, medical practitioners and people living with HIV are scheduled to attend the conference in person; another 2,000 delegates are registered to attend online.
Earlier on Wednesday, researchers spoke about the progress that has been made toward a cure for HIV.
Dr. Jana Dickter, a researcher at the City of Hope medical centre in California, told reporters that a 66-year-old man with HIV who was treated with a stem cell transplant for acute leukemia has been in remission from both conditions for 17 months.
Dickter, whose research is being presented at the conference, said the patient is the fourth person known to have achieved HIV remission after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation.
“This case opens up possibilities for other older persons living with HIV and a blood cancer to receive a transplant and achieve remission from both diseases if a donor with this rare genetic mutation can be identified,” she said, adding that stem cell transplants aren’t an option for most people with HIV, due to the significant potential side-effects.
Madisa Mine, a virologist with Botswana’s Ministry of Health and Wellness, will present research at the conference showing that 95.1 per cent of people in 2021 with HIV in the country knew their status, that 98 per cent of those individuals were on antiretroviral treatment and that 97.9 per cent of those receiving treatment had a suppressed viral load. More than 20 per cent of people aged 15 to 64 in the southern African country are HIV-positive.
“Overall, Botswana has made tremendous progress in the past 20 years, and we strongly believe that we are well positioned to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030,” Mine said.
According to the UNAIDS report, in 2021, 85 per cent of people around the world living with HIV knew their status, 88 per cent of those people were receiving treatment and 92 per cent of people receiving treatment carried a suppressed viral load. UNAIDS has set a goal of reaching 95 per cent in all three categories by 2025.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2022.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
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HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
