ByWard Market pop-up testing event aims to reduce stigma and check more people for HIV

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An estimated one in ten Ottawa residents with HIV are not aware they are infected — something local health officials are working to change.

O’Byrne is optimistic the event will help reach some people who have never been tested for HIV before. That is what happened recently during a similar pop-up in Kingston.

“The stigma is probably the biggest issue we encounter with HIV. It stops people from wanting to get tested and isolates people,” said O’Byrne. In the mid-to-late 1990s, HIV treatment consisted of a daily cocktail of pills. Now treatment can consist of an injection every eight weeks.Article contentUNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, has set a target that 95 per cent of people with HIV should be diagnosed, receiving treatment and have undetectable levels of HIV in their systems.

 

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