HIV testing arrives in Sea-to-Sky Corridor

Starting next week, family practice and hospital physicians throughout the Sea-to-Sky Corridor will be offering an HIV test to patients as part of routine care when ordering other blood tests. Following on the heels of successful rollouts in Vancouver, Richmond, the North Shore hospitals and community sites, routine testing has expanded to Squamish General Hospital and the rest of the corridor. Testing began at Whistler Heath Care Centre and Pemberton Health Care Centre on October 15 and will be in place at Squamish General on October 30.

By implementing routine, provider-initiated testing, VCH is helping to reduce the stigma associated with HIV testing and improve early diagnosis of HIV infection. It is well established that early diagnosis of HIV, like many other chronic diseases, allows individuals to fully benefit from treatment, which improves quality and prolongs people’s lives.

Admission to hospital is an excellent opportunity to test all patients for HIV as studies have found that testing based solely on risk misses a substantial proportion of people with HIV. Most patients are at very low risk and will have a negative test result, but everyone who has ever been sexually active is at some risk of HIV. The Public Health Agency of Canada estimates one quarter of those living with HIV don’t know it; this adds up to about 3,500 BC residents.

For more information on routine HIV testing, check out http://www.hivguide.ca