Substance use patterns and awareness of biomedical HIV prevention strategies among sexual and gender minority men in Canada

Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV: effective and underused

“…Because most efforts to increase uptake of PrEP in Canada and else where have focused on GBM, risk is particularly underappreci ated in other groups, such as women and people who inject drugs, people for whom there are few validated tools for risk assessment. 33,34 Even among patients who know that they are at elevated risk of acquiring HIV, low awareness about, and low acceptability of, PrEP pose additional challenges; systemic discrimination often exacerbates the problem. For instance, among GBM, being "less out" or not identifying as gay have been linked to lower PrEP awareness, knowledge and uptake owing to discomfort with dis closure, fear that PrEP will "out" them or having less access to PrEP awareness campaigns.…”

Prophylaxie préexposition au VIH : efficace et sous-utilisée

“…Or, le risque de VIH est souvent sous-estimé tant par les patients que par les professionnels de la santé. Étant donné que la majeure partie des efforts déployés pour favoriser l'adoption de la PPrE au Cana da et ailleurs ont visé les HGB, le risque est particulièrement sous-évalué dans d'autres groupes; par exemple, chez les femmes, les utilisateurs de drogues par injection et les personnes pour lesquelles les outils validés d'évaluation des risques sont peu nombreux, voire inexistants 33,34 .…”

Stigma, discrimination and HIV or AIDS: an empirical investigation of Asian immigrants and refugees in Canada

“…The Government of Canada estimates that 63,000 people will be living with HIV in Canada in 2022 (Serebrin Jacob, 2022). In 2002/2003, around 700 people living with HIV or AIDS (PLWHA) [refugees] landed in Canada; since 2000, 172 PLWHA have come to British Columbia alone (Haag and Gilbert, 2007;Kiffer, 2020). This has alarmed public health professionals and policymakers in Canada, as it threatens to strain already overburdened public health facilities while also increasing the risk of HIV transmission within the country.…”

“…The same happened to a teacher living with HIV in India. Logie et al (2016) focused heavily on the third phase (of his three phases: the HIV epidemic, the AIDS epidemic and the stigma, prejudice and denial epidemic), which is currently one of the least explored aspects of HIV or AIDS. Stigmatization, prejudice and discrimination all have similar effects in terms of severity.…”