POSITIVE LIVING BC eNews 53
Welcome to the POSITIVE LIVING BC eNews
This weekly resource is committed to providing our HIV-positive community with relevant, newsworthy and meaningful information.
POSITIVE LIVING BC news
- Suits Sunset Dinner Cruise
- AJ's Cafe 5th Anniversary
- Common Cents Penny Drive at Positive Living
BC HIV news
- Drug Alert from the Office of the Chief Medical Health Officer-'Bath Salts'
- Thousands might not know they carry the HIV virus
- DTES resident with HIV takes his life back
- How To Nourish Vancouver's Supportive Housing Residents
Canada HIV news
- Should Taxpayers Support Drug Users?
- Harm reduction unfairly targeted
- ACAA Presents 'Rights in the Moment: Looking at the rights of People Living With HIV, Sex Workers, and People Who Use Drugs' Conference
International HIV news
- Lawsuit claims Illinois jail denied man HIV drugs
- China Changes Patent Law In Fight For Cheaper Drugs
- Is treatment as prevention ready to roll out, or do we need to know more?
Suits Sunset Dinner Cruise
Come kick off Pride with us aboard the Constitution Paddle Wheeler! Take in the sunset and a scrumptious meal for $67 all-inclusive (tickets must be purchased in advance). We will board at 6:30pm at the address below.
Suits is a monthly dinner for HIV poz gay working men which takes place at various Vancouver-area restaurants on the last Monday of each month.
AJ's Cafe 5th Anniversary
AJ's Cafe is a social gathering for HIV Poz men to hang out. Join us on Friday August 3rd between 3pm and 6pm for a drink or a meal to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the programme!
POSITIVE LIVING BC Membership is not required.
Common Cents Penny Drive at Positive Living
Common Cents Penny Drive - we can all use a little change.
You may have heard: Canada is eliminating the penny. But your pennies still count!
Make a difference in the lives of people living with HIV by dropping off your pennies at Positive Living BC (1107 Seymour Street, 2nd Floor, Vancouver). We will count them for you.
Drug Alert from the Office of the Chief Medical Health Officer-'Bath Salts'
Bath Salts
People may be using a drug called “Bath Salts” in Vancouver
‘Bath Salts’ are not salts that go in your bath. It is the street name for some synthetic amphetamine-type stimulants that come in the form of white or yellowish powder.
They are not regulated and are often sold as ‘legal highs’, but this does not make them safe.
Some of the negative effects reported:
- Infections from injecting them
- hallucinations with agitation and paranoia
- chest pain
- overheating
- a variety of other negative mental and physical effects
Bath Salts are not regulated in any way. Different batches or brands have very different contents and strength. Not knowing what is in your drugs or how strong they are can lead to overdose.
Compulsive re-dosing (fiending) is common and risks of negative mental and physical effects increase at high doses and with repeated use.
Thousands might not know they carry the HIV virus
Up to 4,500 people in B.C. are carrying the HIV virus unawares — and spreading it, health officials believe.
“Of all people who have HIV, probably about a quarter don’t know it,” says Dr. Reka Gustafson, a medical health officer for the Vancouver Coastal Health region. “One of the main reasons for that is we don’t test for HIV as much as we should. There are very few screening tests that have such a great potential for benefit, both for the individual and for their community.
DTES resident with HIV takes his life back
When Kevin T. found out he was HIV positive in 2008, he knew he had to get his life in order.
How To Nourish Vancouver's Supportive Housing Residents
Boomer Bundy takes a wide, careful turn at the cobblestone intersection in Gastown where Gassy Jack's statue stands watch. Bundy is pulling about 120 pounds of hot food on a two-wheeled trailer behind his bicycle, bound for some of Vancouver's hungriest.
"I've spilled these before, and it ain't pretty," he tells me, before departing from a Hastings Street garage. That's his response to my asking if I could help out by attaching a trailer to my bike. I understand. An accident from a well-intentioned reporter is probably the last thing he wants to deal with.
Bundy is a volunteer for the Lunch Peddlers, a program run by the Portland Hotel Society. It operates out of the Smith-Yuen building, a 53-unit residence for seniors with mental illnesses. The small kitchen there has two full-time cooks and several volunteers who produce approximately 850 meals per day which are delivered -- via bicycle -- to 13 other PHS residences in the neighbourhood.
Should Taxpayers Support Drug Users?
While drug abuse is a widespread problem, it's fair to ask: Whose problem is it exactly?
Harm reduction unfairly targeted
Kallio is support services coordinator at AIDS Saskatoon and 601 Outreach Centre.
There is a small but vocal segment of our community, the media and public figures who perpetuate the false notion that needle exchange and other harm reduction programs are not working, are dangerous to local citizens and should be abandoned.
ACAA Presents 'Rights in the Moment: Looking at the rights of People Living With HIV, Sex Workers, and People Who Use Drugs' Conference
This June, AIDS Calgary Awareness Association (ACAA) will be hosting a new conference titled 'Rights in the Moment: Looking at the rights of people living with HIV, sex workers, and people who use drugs'. ACAA has invited several exciting guest speakers to present on current issues, best practices, and research at Rights in the Moment. Dr. Val Montessori and Irene Day, of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, will be presenting on Treatment as Prevention followed by a panel discussion. Conference speakers also include one of the top 25 most influential lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer magazine, Alan Young. The Executive Director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and one of Canada's leading figures in drug policy, Donald MacPherson, will also be joining us.
Lawsuit claims Illinois jail denied man HIV drugs
A Chicago man filed a federal lawsuit Monday claiming an Illinois jail prevented him from taking his prescribed HIV medications for a week, harming his health and violating his constitutional rights.
China Changes Patent Law In Fight For Cheaper Drugs
China has overhauled parts of its intellectual property laws to allow its drug makers to make cheap copies of medicines still under patent protection in an initiative likely to unnerve foreign pharmaceutical companies.
Is Treatment as Prevention Ready to Roll Out, or do We Need to Know More?
INFECTIOUSNESS AND TREATMENT AS PREVENTION
Major randomised studies of the impact of antiretroviral treatment expansion on new infections are getting underway, and should provide important evidence to guide further implementation, researchers reported at the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care summit,Controlling the HIV epidemic with antiretrovirals, in London this week.
However, some delegates attending the meeting, which comprised physicians, community advocates, donors and programme managers, argued that expansion of antiretroviral treatment in order to achieve an impact on new infections should not be held back by the need to conduct further research.
