The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the advantages of home tests, argues the Public Health Agency of Canada, which recognizes their great usefulness in remote communities, where access to testing is more complex.
The Agency refers to systemic barriers
as barriers to testing, citing in particular stigma and discrimination experienced in health care settings.
This is true for Indigenous communities, remote communities, those who are racialized
cited Minister Duclos as an example, during a press briefing held Monday followingnoon in Montreal.
These communities should therefore benefit from better access to test kits, because this is where the individual and collective results are most important
justified Mr. Duclos without however being able to quantify the number of kits that these new investments represent.
Also invited to speak at the press briefing, the executive director of COCQ-SIDA indicated that a screening kit for HIV currently cost $35 in Canada, plus shipping. Only one company provides them and the arrival of new players might improve the quantity available, argued Harpreet Kochhar, the president of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
« The close-to-home testing option is critical to ensuring equitable access to testing and addressing testing capacity gaps in remote communities. »
Community organizations already involved in the allocation of self-test kits from the HIV since their approval in 2020 will distribute new ones on a larger scale, in particular to populations affected by the HIVwith $8 million in funding.
Canada will also invest $9.9 million to support the work of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, added the Minister of Health.
Incidence rates of HIV are 60 times higher among people who inject drugs, regarding 40 times higher among “gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with sexually active men”, and almost four times higher among indigenous populations, according to data from the Public Health Agency in 2020.
2030 goal
Some 63,000 people live with HIV in Canada, 10% of whom have not been diagnosed, estimates the federal agency responsible for public health.
« The rate of HIV in Canada remains high. »
In 2021, an observational study funded by the Ontario Cancer Treatment Network HIV mentioned the various obstacles to current screening methods: fear of the results, concerns regarding confidentiality, or even stigmatization and reluctance to screen, among others.
Canada is committed to achieving the global goal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as public health threats by 2030.
As part of the 95-95-95 targets of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, the Canadian government must help ensure that 95% of people living in Canada with HIV are aware of their situation, that 95% of people diagnosed with the infection receive antiretroviral treatment and that 95% of those treated have their viral load suppressed.
