“i know from my own experience, when there were places where i couldn’t get help, i didn’t go back.”
cymric leask is the hiv project coordinator in the battlefords.
an ongoing problem
cymric leask, hiv project coordinator in the battlefords, said this has been an ongoing problem. when rates of hiv and hepatitis in the area started climbing, access to treatment lagged behind and never caught up.
“here at our clinic we’ve found that if we don’t help people on that first visit, they’re not as likely to come back,” leask said. “if they come in and we have that diagnosis for them, but we aren’t able to tell them when they can get help with that, they’re not as likely to come back in the future.
“and a lot of them are getting lost through the cracks, just because there isn’t that immediate availability to help them.”
leask said the community has a hard time getting doctors of all sorts to work in the area — but communicable disease doctors, who could treat patients like paul, are in particularly short supply.
“right now, we have one doctor that comes once every two or three months,” said leask. “he can only run his clinic for the seven hours that he’s here, for half-hour appointments. so that’s 14 people that can see a doctor every two or three months.”
by now, leask and paul estimate the number of battleford and area residents who need treatment for hiv or hepatitis — if they only had a way to get it — numbers in the hundreds, and continues to rise.