The British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the Government of Queensland and the HIV Foundation Queensland have signed an agreement formalizing a collaboration to adopt the made-in-B.C. Treatment as Prevention strategy for HIV.
The agreement, signed at the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, makes Queensland the latest international jurisdiction to implement TasP. Panama, China, France, Spain and Brazil have already signed on, and U.S. cities including New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. are adopting the Treatment as Prevention model (TasP).
“We are very excited to be collaborating with Queensland, and implementing our made-in-BC Treatment as Prevention strategy,” says Dr. Julio Montaner, Head of the Division of AIDS at the UBC Faculty of Medicine, Chair of AIDS research, and Director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE). “This model is based on scientific evidence. We know from the success we’ve had with Treatment as Prevention, it holds the promise of eliminating HIV and AIDS in our lifetime.”
The Treatment as Prevention strategy involves widespread HIV testing and the immediate offer of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to medically eligible individuals. Early engagement and sustained treatment has been shown to virtually eliminate progression of the disease to AIDS and premature death, and simultaneously stop transmission of the virus.
Dr. Montaner formally introduced TasP in 2006, and B.C. has virtually eliminated AIDS and markedly decreased the spread of new HIV infections. The strategy has been so successful that the province’s dedicated HIV/AIDS Ward, which opened in 1997 at St. Paul’s hospital in Vancouver, was recently converted to other purposes due to a lack of new cases.
“Queensland is the first Australian jurisdiction to enter into such a partnership to develop an HIV Treatment as Prevention strategy with leading international experts,” said Queensland Minister for Health Lawrence Springborg. “This provides Queensland with the opportunity to lead the development, implementation and evaluation of TasP in Australia. We believe this will have significant impacts on national and international efforts working towards the virtual elimination of HIV.”
The BC-CfE and its Queensland partners will work jointly to respectively improve the health of British Columbians and Queenslanders through sharing cost-effective research, therapeutic protocols and tools, and programs for the treatment of HIV and AIDS. The partnership aims to protect and improve the health of people by eliminating HIV/AIDS through science, policy, partnership, and evidence-based public health action.
”The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS is recognized around the world as a leader in research and innovation,” said the Hon. Terry Lake, B.C.’s Minister of Health. “HIV/AIDS is a global problem, and we are committed to sharing our expertise. This exchange allows us to promote and collaborate on health priorities affecting Queensland, British Columbia, and the global community in relation to HIV/AIDS.”