2023-04-23 22:00:00
A group of organizations fighting against AIDS, the Coalition of Quebec Community Organizations for the Fight against AIDS (Cocq-sida, member of Coalition PLUS) has embarked on a campaign to have Quebec follow in Ontario’s footsteps and to France, by authorizing community workers to screen for HIV using rapid tests, explains the Canadian Press (April 12). The NGO has also challenged the Legault government in this regard so that this act is no longer reserved only for health professionals, as is currently the case. With this request, Cocq-sida intends to develop community screening, which could “contribute to reaching one of the targets [de l’Onusida, ndlr] to eradicate the HIV epidemic by 2030; that 95% of people living with HIV know their status. As the newspaper notes, The Covid-19 pandemic has slowed HIV testing efforts in Quebec. The number of tests carried out fell from 413,197 to 337,158 between 2019 and 2020, a drop of 18.4%, recalls the Coalition. Screening has certainly increased in 2021, but has not returned to its pre-Covdi-19 level. “All the nursing resources that were previously engaged in local screening actions, in tandem with community stakeholders, have been withdrawn from this action and put on Covid,” explains Ken Monteith, CEO of Cocq-sida, in Canadian Press columns. “You can understand that, but you can’t really cancel HIV testing,” he says. According to him, community workers could have represented an alternative plan during the health crisis if they had been authorized to use rapid test kits (RDTs). “We know there are community responders who are trained and accredited to perform these rapid tests. We have partners in Ontario, France, Morocco and Ecuador who do it,” explained Ken Monteith. This model, which works elsewhere, would have its place in Quebec. The National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) does not disagree. The organization has focused on the community approach. The INSPQ considers that the addition of community workers to health professionals “could optimize HIV testing in Quebec, (…) particularly among vulnerable communities that do not have easy access to testing services. in clinical settings. He also stresses that “the French and American experiences are positive”. In the office of the Minister of Health, they say they are “very sensitive to the requests” of Cocq-sida, explains the Canadian Press. “We all have the same objective, to improve access to quality care for all Quebecers, and we are ready to evaluate the various solutions to achieve this. We have asked the ministry and public health to come back to us with various proposals, ”said a spokesperson for the Minister of Health Christian Dubé, quoted in La Presse. For its part, Ottawa announced (summer 2022) funding of $8 million, allowing various organizations to distribute HIV self-tests. By the end of March, at least 54,335 self-testing kits had been given to community organizations across the country, including more than 4,000 in Quebec, according to Health Canada. NGOs and health agencies hope the “rollout of these kits will help reach some of the 10% of Canadians living with HIV who were unaware of their status,” according to the Health Agency’s end-of-2020 estimates. Canadian public. And Ken Monteith concludes: “We know that when a person knows their status, is connected to care and is on antiretroviral treatment, they no longer transmit HIV (…). So, instead of having a pool of people who don’t know their status and who can transmit HIV, we want people to know their status as much as possible and be able to access the care they need, for their health, but also for their health. public”.
abortion in the United States for half a century. These debates will obviously continue in addition in the context of the presidential election of 2024.
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#Decompartmentalising #HIV #testing