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home / 世界杯决赛2022

hiv self-tests hard to come by in saskatchewan

advocates for people with hiv say self-administered tests could be a game-changer in curbing saskatchewan's sky-high transmission rate.

by zak vescera, saskatoon starphoenix

jun 18 2021
read time 3 minute read
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saskatchewan advocates for people with hiv say self-administered tests could be a game-changer in curbing the province’s sky-high transmission rates.

but the newly approved tests are scarce, available mostly as part of research pilots, leaving many to wonder if and when they’ll become more accessible.

“this is one of the things we’ve been asking funders,” said shiny mary varghese, e xecutive director of aids program south saskatchewan.

varghese is worried saskatchewan’s hiv transmission rates, already about twice the national average, have exploded in the shadow of the pandemic as testing declined.

she hopes insti tests can be part of the answer. the tests, approved by health canada in november, can be administered by anyone and yield results in minutes. but access is mostly limited to research programs. varghese said the cost of a kit is as high as $35, more than she can afford.

the organization has got a small number of kits from researchers, but non-profits have no idea when and if there will be a dedicated supply, she added.
“people have come to the door and within 10 minutes we know their status,” said cheryl barton of the persons living with aids network of saskatchewan. the saskatoon non-profit bought a small number of tests out of pocket so it could offer hiv testing on-site. that way, there’s no need for a followup appointment and indigenous elders and peers can be right there to provide support if a positive result comes back, barton said.
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“it’s a way to prepare them that if the test comes back positive, it’s not the end of their life.”
d.a. dirks, executive director at the university of regina’s pride centre for sexuality and gender diversity, noted people most at risk for hiv — sex workers, drug users, gay and transgender people and indigenous people, are the least likely to have access to conventional testing, making rapid tests even more appealing, even if results have to be validated in a lab.
“it doesn’t involve having to go into a physical space and engage with, potentially, at the worst, hostile, or at the best, uninformed health care providers,” dirks said.
the centre is receiving free kits as part of a national distribution pilot called test now, a program run by the community-based research centre in vancouver, seeking to improve testing access for lgbtq2a+ people.
given that ur pride is a small organization, it will only receive as much as it can handle, which currently amounts to 125 kits.
“i didn’t want us to bite off more than we can chew,” dirks said.
postmedia asked saskatchewan’s ministry of health for an interview on whether it was participating in any studies or otherwise involved in expanding access to kits. the ministry responded with a prepared statement about the i’m ready self-test program, a nationwide project run by the canadian institutes for health research, aiming to distribute 50,000 self-test kits across the country, including two locations in saskatchewan.
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dr. sean rourke, the program’s lead scientist, said self-tests could fill holes left by a dearth of testing in rural areas, or make accessing tests more convenient for people who don’t want to go to a conventional clinic.
“we have a group that isn’t being tested by traditional means,” rourke said. “we don’t want to replace all those things. we want to fill in the gaps.“
overall, though, rourke said saskatchewan and other provinces have dragged their feet on point of care and self-administered hiv testing, which he believes is at least partially a matter of cost.
varghese said she approached the government about the kits and the government cited cost as a concern for funding them more broadly.
rourke argues that finding undiagnosed cases of hiv is one of the most important steps to suppressing the epidemic in canada. ideally, it should be no farther than a pharmacy shelf, he said.
the research programs have made some kits available, but barton and varghese both say broader access is needed, especially since many clients don’t have access to phone or internet services to book appointments.
“the minute we tell them to go somewhere, we’ve lost them. it’s best to meet them where they are at,” varghese said.

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zvescera@postmedia.com

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