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wk w 4 BINGO IS BACK IN BURLINGTON! *. NOW OPEN * THE BINGO CONNECTION WEEKLY BINGO SCHEDULE * Oakville Beaver | Thursday, December 1, 2022 | 38 MONDAY TO WEDNESDAY 12:30PM =, MONDAY TO FRIDAY 7 PM OUR NEW LOCATION AT 2316 FAIRVIEW STREET, BURLINGTON (IN THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE POLISH HALL, ENTRY IN REAR OF BUILDING) THE COFFEE’S ON US AT ALL SESSIONS SEE OUR PROGRAMS AT * A WTAWAVYAMat=Lodiays lexecedalat-reid (o]a Ret] f ¥ CONNECT WITH US AT FACEBOOK OR TWITTER OR CALL OUR HOTLINE - 289-245-1192 LIC. #M823241 € 8 : 3 £& HB OPINION WILL HIV SELF-TESTING BE A GAME-CHANGER? SELF-TESTING HAS SHOWN PROMISE IN THE COUNTRIES WHERE IT HAD ALREADY BEEN ROLLED OUT, WRITES JODY JOLLIMORE One of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the number of things you can now do from the comfort of your own home. From telework to talking to a doctor, the kits, long available before the pandemic in other countries, received Health Canada approval in late . elf-testing has 2020. St st shown promise in the countries where it had al- testing rates among people hi 1 din the JODY JOLLIMORE Column als until the cost barrier is reduced or eliminated al- together. This is why I applauded e Government of Cana- da's announcement this summer that they would invest $8.8 million to pur- chase and distribute HIV self-test kits to the commu- nities most in need across Canada. To do this, they will partner with organi- zations, networks and ser- vice providers that already have the human resources and infrastructure to get these kits into the hands of people who need them. We at the Canadian AIDS Tre ent Information Exchange (CATIE) will produce sy-te id. leaf- health-care system. We al- so saw home-based testing as a potential alternative to in-person clinics during the pandemic, a need exac- erbated as the health-care system now struggles with wait times, high patient loads and worker shortag- es. But approval of self- testing was just the first step. The only HIV self-test approved in Canada is priced at $35 when pur- chased directly from the manufacturer, plus ship- ping costs. Such a price barrier will shut out exact- ly the types of people who most need self-testing, and who are most likely to be living with undiagnosed HIV. Self-testing won't be a feasible alternative or even option for these individu- lets to be inserted in kits, as wellas training and edu- to organizations wanting to distribute them. Recently the Public Health Agency of Canada released new estimates of eliminate HIV as a public health threat by 2030. The good news is that we have exceeded our most recent will e! meet that target. Where we are falling behind is in linking those diagnosed with HIV to followup care and treatment. This is disturbing for many reasons. Current treatments mean a person with HIV can live a long and healthy life, with a life expectancy close to their HIV-negative peers. We al- so now know that a person on effective treatment can't pass HIV on to their sexual partners. So, if an individual is not taking a vantage of these clear ben- efits of HIV treatment, I ave to ask myself why. Are they lacking treat- ment information? Are they facing financial barri- ers? Or are they having end HIV will require com- plex interventions that ad- dress these barriers. e also know that bar- riers to testing and health care hit some communities rd an others. Indig- enous people, African, Ca- ribbean and Black Canadi- ans, people who use drugs and other marginalized groups are less likely to ac- cess HIV testing, and more likely to be lost to followup nities and speak to them in their own languages. ‘anada has a vast net- work of community-based HIV service providers, and this is part of their job. We are so close to ending new HIV infections in Canada, but it will require invest- ments in the tools we know those tools in the hands of those that need them. Jody Jollimore is exec- utive director of CATIE, Canada's source for HIV and hepatitis C informa- tion.