Prince George and Vancouver are the targets of the province's "seek and treat" program to identify 3,500 new cases of HIV in people who are unaware they are carriers of the virus.
Since its launch in February 2010, the provincially-funded $48 million pilot project, Seek and Treat for Optimal Prevention (STOP) HIV/AIDS, has led the push to encourage more patient testing and expand treatment and support services for HIV-positive individuals.
"Part of the rationale that Prince George was chosen to be part of this four-year pilot project was that there has been an increase in the rates of HIV in the North that were higher than in other health authorities, and also mortality rates were higher in Aboriginal and First Nations groups," said Dr. Susan MacDonald, Northern Interior medical director of Northern Health.
"Now that there is good treatment medication with HAART [highly active antiretrovial therapy], it's a shame not to be able to offer this lifesaving treatment to individuals who might not be aware of their HIV status. The treatment for HIV/AIDS has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. The availability of very effective, generally well-tolerated medication has truly changed our approach to HIV/AIDS."
Northern Health is targeting First Nations people because their rate of HIV infection is statistically higher. Although they make up just 3.9 per cent of the Canadian population, MacDonald said close to eight per cent of all HIV-infected people in the country are of aboriginal origin. They represent 12.5 per cent of new HIV-positive cases.
There are close to 65,000 Canadians living with HIV, 12,000 of whom are B.C. residents.
The STOP program urges all family doctors to encourage HIV testing for all patients who have blood tests to target individuals outside the usual high-risk categories -- sexually promiscuous people and those who use intravenous drugs. Although a full-scale HIV blood test costs $300, if an initial test comes back negative, the cost ranges from $10 to $25.
In addition to covering the costs of testing and treatment, the program also funds support groups for HIV-positive people, which MacDonald says are critical in the recovery process.
"Many individuals who learn of their HIV-positive status are facing significant stigma but also can themselves be quite distraught over the diagnosis," she MacDonald. "Our ultimate goal is to offer testing to anyone who wishes to have it and in particular, not just to the high-risk groups."
It is estimated that close to 26 per cent of Canadians who are HIV-positive do not know they are. That not only increases the risk of transmission but also rules out early intervention with HAART treatment, which uses drugs to slow replication of the HIV virus. Without it, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) patients can develop AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), which suppresses the immune system, leading to life-threatening infections and cancers.
"Part of the problem with HIV/AIDS is some people may have some flu-like symptoms when it first affects them, but not everybody does," MacDonald said. "The virus itself can stay within a person's immune system and start attacking it very slowly. It's not unknown to not show symptoms for a decade."
Northern Health will receive $5.9 million over the life of the four-year pilot project. Funding for the STOP project is being shared by Northern Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, the Provincial Health Services Authority, which will conduct much of the testing, and the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, which was instrumental in discovering HAART in the mid-1990s.
