HIV Status testing event at Victory Square in Vancouver Downtown Eastside on Sat July 9, Sun July 10, 2011

July 9, 2011 ahamedia Leave a comment Go to comments

From What’s Your Status

Together we can radically stop the spread of HIV and AIDS through identifying participants who are positive. The earlier you learn your status and start treatment you significantly lower the risk of transmitting this disease to someone else.

Finding out your HIV status is positive used to be thought of as a death sentence. This is no longer the case because of pioneers in medical research like Dr. Julio Montaner and the BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS who have developed a highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for people living with the disease that can prolong healthy living for a lifetime and reduces the risk of HIV transmission. Along with this ground breaking research, a Point of Care test (similar to a test a diabetic would take) has the ability to screen for the virus in 60 seconds.

We are initiating a HIV testing, treatment and education campaign in the downtown eastside community (DTES). This program is a pilot project linking peers within our DTES to information and resources that they need and are available to them within the PHS programs that currently exist as well as special summer outdoor events.

Our objectives are to test and educate as many people from the DTES community as HIV screening is an important part of preventative health care for everyone. We also intend to link people living with a HIV positive status to all the resources and support that are available to them in their community.