Vancouver, Insite and HIV infection rates

~ Jason Schwartz

haart_guideI recently stumbled onto this blog post with a very interesting observation about Vancouver, Insite and HIV infection rates.

Vancouver has seen a marked decrease in the incidence of AIDS/HIV and those who promote harm reduction sites point to the injection site called Insite as proof of success but they are wrong. The reduction of HIV/AIDS in British Columbia is because it is the only province that offers highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART)  free of charge and aggressively promotes its use.

“. . . the most compelling data to date demonstrating the soundness of the “treatment as prevention” theory, an approach conceived at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS and now being embraced worldwide.

“Treatment as prevention . . . is so successful, from Zimbabwe to Abbottsford, that policy-makers now talk openly about the possibility of freezing the epidemic in its tracks and creating an AIDS-free generation.”

I don’t agree with all the sentiments on this blog post, and I don’t understand the writer’s concept of “redistributing harm”, but , with all the discussion of Insite and Vancouver, I’ve never seen anyone discuss HAART and it’s impact on infection rates.
Read more at http://abearsrant.com/2013/10/redistributing-harm-isnt-harm-reduction.html#UYifT0odx6xWC204.99

Published by Jason Schwartz

I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work. Views expressed here are my own. Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.