Positive Living Magazine

N E W S A N D T R E AT M E N T I N F O R M AT I O N F R O M T H E P O S I T I V E L I V I N G S O CI E T Y O F BR I T I S H C O LU M BI A

ISSN 1712-8536

M A R CH • A P R I L 2 0 2 0 VOLUME 22 • NUMBER 2

Will to survive My journey to beat cancer

Post-breakup sex

Avoiding fake news

War on dieting

I N S I D E

Follow us at:  pozlivingbc  positivelivingbc

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MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

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A CUP OF TABOO

There’s no shame in Reflecting on the Society’s getting sexy again with legacy as we say, Goodbye your ex

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COVER STORY

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LET’S GET CLINICAL

Meet someone who won’t CTN 314 looks to better let cancer bring him down understand health in an aging population

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VOLUNTEER PROFILE Volunteering at Positive Living BC

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WHERE TO FIND HELP HIV Resources in BC

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NUTRITION

 positivelivingbc.org

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FUTURE IS NOT

The Healthy At Any Size SO BRIGHT approach to “Diet culture” AIDS-related social services are being scaled back, and that’s bad newsd

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UNDERSTANDING FAKE NEWS

Simple steps to avoid falling for online bunk about HIV

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POZ CONTRIBUTIONS Recognizing Positive Living BC supporters

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LAST BLAST

Passing of a leading HIV researcher

HEALTH PROMOTION PROGRAM MANDATE & DISCLAIMER In accordance with our mandate to provide support activities and prejudice. The program does not recommend, advocate, or endorse facilities for members for the purpose of self-help and self-care, the the use of any particular treatment or therapy provided as information.

Positive Living Society of BC operates a Health Promotion Program The Board, staff, and volunteers of the Positive Living Society of to make available to members up-to-date research and information BC do not accept the risk of, or the responsiblity for, damages, on treatments, therapies, tests, clinical trials, and medical models costs, or consequences of any kind which may arise or result from associated with AIDS and HIV-related conditions. The intent of the use of information disseminated through this program. Persons this project is to make available to members information they can using the information provided do so by their own decisions and access as they choose to become knowledgeable partners with hold the Society’s Board, staff, and volunteers harmless. Accepting their physicians and medical care team in making decisions to information from this program is deemed to be accepting the terms promote their health. The Health Promotion Program endeavours to of this disclaimer. provide all research and information to members without judgment or P5SITIVE LIVING | 1 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

The Positive Living Society of British Columbia seeks to empower persons living with HIV disease and AIDS through mutual support and collective action. The Society has over 6,000 HIV+ members.

POSITIVE LIVING EDITORIAL BOARD Glen Bradford, Wayne Campbell, Brandon Laviolette, Jason Motz, Adam Reibin, Glyn Townson MANAGING EDITOR Jason Motz DESIGN / PRODUCTION Britt Permien COPYEDITING Maylon Gardner, Heather G. Ross PROOFING Ashra Kolhatkar CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jaylene Acheson, Hesham Ali, Hannah Branch, Wayne Campbell, Dakota Descoteaux, Cristel Moubarak Hackenbruch, Walter Petram, Trenton Straube PHOTOGRAPHY Britt Permien DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND EDUCATION Adam Reibin DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS AND SERVICES Glen Bradford TREATMENT OUTREACH COORDINATOR Wayne Campbell SUBSCRIPTIONS / DISTRIBUTION John Kozachenko, Matthew Matthew Funding for Positive Living magazine is provided by the BC Gaming Policy & Enforcement Branch & by subscription & donations.

Positive Living BC | 1101 Seymour St. Vancouver BC V6B 0R1

 Reception 604.893.2200  Editor 604.893.2206  living@positivelivingbc.org  positivelivingbc.org

Permission to reproduce: All Positive Living articles are copyrighted. Non-commercial reproduction is welcomed.

For permission to reprint articles, either in part or in whole, please email living@positivelivingbc.org

© 2020 Positive Living

The end of an era Positive Living Society to close up shop

By Walter Petram

On

January 28, 2020 I issued an important public announcement on behalf of the Board of Directors: Please be advised that Positive Living BC will cease program delivery as of March 31, 2020. These actions are the consequence of steadily declining revenue for our Society over the past several years.

Cutting operational expenses, maximizing our volunteer workforce, and pursuing new income sources have allowed us to survive until now. But we are unable to balance a six-figure shortfall in financial support from our major funder in 2020.

The Board’s decision to close Positive Living BC was not made hastily. The well-being of our members, volunteers, staff and other supporters remains our top priority as we move forward. We are currently negotiating a transfer of certain programs to other community agencies.

You can expect an update on the outcome of those negotiations in the coming weeks.

Ideally my first formal communication as the Society’s newest Board Chair would have told a different story.

When I was appointed to this role in November 2019—immediately following Tom McAulay’s resignation, and at the tail end of an extremely turbulent year for Society operations—I was aware that tough times were ahead. Still, my objective was to secure Positive Living BC’s longevity in service to my fellow members living with HIV.

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To maintain financial security is never easy for a non-profit agency. Positive Living BC was already struggling by the time I joined the Board. But our Society’s circumstances became exponentially more difficult in 2016/17 when the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) cut nearly $300,000 in funding from our annual operating budget. We were not alone.

Overall, BC’s HIV community sector lost around $1.5 million in federal funding from 2016 to 2018. This unexpected shortfall resulted in reduced programming throughout the province and forced the closure of Positive Women’s Network (PWN) in 2017. Tenacious as ever, Positive Living BC did its best to survive this crisis and fill gaps in service left by PWN and other agencies.

Over the years, I have worked with my fellow Board Directors, members and volunteers, Society management and other staff to devise new and creative solutions to our ongoing fiscal challenges: Staff lay-offs, organizational restructuring, and downsizing major events like the Vancouver AIDS WALK and AccolAIDS resulted in savings in operational costs; we sought new revenue sources by introducing online giving options, grassroots events like the Red Bucket Campaign, and by expanding our program delivery to appeal to different funders; and we launched the Community Dental Clinic as a unique social enterprise to support self-sustainability.

Nevertheless, we never fully recovered from the PHAC cuts. And while reducing expenses in some areas of our operations allowed us to function until now, expenses in other areas continue to increase. With further cutbacks from major funders scheduled for the coming fiscal year, the Board sees no way to continue operations.

Many of us have a personal, emotional connection to the Society and our place in it. If you are experiencing trouble processing this change, I urge you to contact a Positive Living BC Peer Navigator

for support (604.908.7710 or navigators@ positivelivingbc.org) until March 31, 2020.

After that time, I encourage you to get in touch with other HIV community organizations listed on page 21.

Please also keep up-to-date with us online at positivelivingbc.org and our social media outlets listed there—as promised above, we hope to update you soon with news on our plans to transfer some of our programming to other agencies.

The pending closure of Positive Living BC is a major change, but not necP5SITIVE LIVING | 3 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

essarily a sad one. I encourage you to consider how all of the successes we won as a collective of PLHIV have led to where we are today. By and large, PLHIV in our province have a hopeful and healthy future because of the Society’s work. Most members can agree that the need for us to operate on a large scale no longer exists—many of us now work, play, and live outside the parameters of the Society. We don’t need Positive Living BC services in the same way we once did.

continued next page

Let me end on a happier note with a synopsis of the Society’s history. Over the next few pages, you will learn about just a few of our milestones. We have a lot to be proud of. Thanks to the work of thousands of Society members, volunteers, staff members and community allies, we have much to look forward to.

I thank all of you for your support of Positive Living BC.

Walter Petram

Chair, Board of Directors

Where we came from

AIDS hit Vancouver in 1983. While most of the city was paralyzed by ignorance and fear, a group of proactive people living with AIDS (PWAs) mobilized to share information and experiences.

Informal support groups were organized in people’s homes.

Political lobbying and protests called attention to the urgent need for treatment information and access to experimental drugs. The first community-based AIDS organization in western Canada, AIDS Vancouver, emerged from these early years of coordinated support and activism.

AIDS Vancouver developed into a nationally recognized organization. In 1986, as a condition of receiving federal government funding, AIDS Vancouver was prohibited from providing treatment information and lobbying for experimental drugs.

Opposing these restrictions, a handful of visionaries established the Vancouver Persons with AIDS Coalition—a grassroots group which encouraged PWAs to empower themselves by advocating for their rights and their health.

The Vancouver Persons With AIDS Coalition conducted its first business meeting in May 1986. Administrative and operational functions were shared by the Coalition’s 15 founding members.

Particularly influential among this group were Kevin Brown, Taavi Nurmela, and Warren Jensen. They put a human face to AIDS and exemplified the Coalition’s self-empowerment philosophy.

Kevin Brown’s leadership qualities made him an obvious choice as founding Chair, a position he held for two terms, until shortly before his death in 1989.

In 1990, the Vancouver Persons with AIDS Coalition created a mission statement. Three years later, at its 1993 Annual General Meeting, the membership approved an organizational name change, representing expanded service through a provincial mandate. They became known as the BC Persons With AIDS Society (BCPWA). At its 2011 Annual General Meeting, the membership renamed itself again, this time as the Positive Living Society of BC to reflect the current, hopeful spirit of their HIV

community. Though HIV survival today was now radically different in the early 1990s, our Society’s original mission statement was as relevant as ever: “Positive Living BC exists to enable persons living with AIDS and HIV disease to empower themselves through mutual support and collective action. From our personal struggles and challenges come our courage and strength.”

In October 1986, the Coalition began publishing a newsletter to keep members connected and informed about support groups, events, advocacy issues, and treatment information. By 1997, the volume of treatment information was so extensive that the Society’s Treatment Information Program (TIP) launched a separate publication entitled TIP News.

BCPWA News and TIP News were eventually consolidated to create a single bi-monthly HIV/AIDS treatment information and news magazine. The first issue of Living5 magazine was published in July 1999. Now published as Positive Living Magazine, this resource holds its status as one of the only publications produced by and for people living with HIV (PLHIV), and its readership extends around the globe.

BCPWA launched its first website in 1997. The site provided information about the Society, current events, and over 100 HIV/ AIDS-related links. Today, positivelivingbc.org and its associated social media channels are refreshed daily to mirror the latest online trends, and they number among Canada’s most accessed online initiatives dedicated to the PLHIV community.

The Vancouver PWA Coalition organized the first AIDS Walka-thon in Canada in 1986 ... raising awareness and over $7,000 for PWAs. Positive Living BC’s signature fundraising event has generated millions of dollars to subsidize direct services for HIV-positive British Columbians. The event’s popularity inspired cities throughout Canada to coordinate AIDS WALKs of their own, creating a national phenomenon.

Over the years, Positive Living BC’s support programs have reflected the diverse and evolving needs of its members. In 1986, the Holistic Health Fund was established to reimburse members up to $200 per month in expenses for complementary or alternative therapies, courses, or training. This provision, which subsequently evolved into the Community Health Fund (CHF), was unprecedented in Canada and was made possible principally through AIDS WALK revenue.

The first AIDS medications developed in the mid-1980s were withheld from Canadians by government red tape. In 1986, BCPWA Society founding members Kevin Brown and Warren Jenson met with Health Minister Jake Epp to advocate for the availability of the experimental drug AZT on compassionate

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grounds. They presented a petition containing over 3,000 signatures and argued that citizens were dying while waiting for treatment. In 1987, Kevin Brown became the first legal Canadian recipient of AZT. Although the release of AZT was a major triumph, treatments remained largely unavailable to PWAs. Answering the demands of activists, the government made a few new AIDS drugs accessible through the Emergency Health Release Program. However, PWAs were required to assume 20 percent of drug costs, often totaling thousands of dollars per year. In response, Kevin Brown and BCPWA filed an unprecedented court challenge in December 1987, claiming the billing policy discriminated against PWA. Although they lost the case, they won a symbolic victory when the Supreme Court denounced BC’s AIDS policies.

Government policy and prejudice have perpetuated HIVrelated discrimination over the past two decades. Over the years, BCPWA has coordinated numerous protests to oppose exclusion, discrimination, and other injustices.

In 1987, controversial amendments to the Health Act sought to quarantine people infected with HIV. BCPWA retaliated against this violation of civil liberties with a march through the city and a 200-person rally on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. The bill never passed.

In 1990, the Society boycotted the IV International AIDS Conference in San Francisco in opposition to discriminatory US legislation requiring disclosure of HIV status by all visitors.

The same year, BCPWA called for a boycott of White Spot Ltd. restaurants when the company wrongfully terminated a member after his HIV status was discovered; the member sued for damages and won.

To protest severe NDP cutbacks to AIDS prevention programs, BCPWA boycotted the 1996 International AIDS Conference in Vancouver. The Society held the position that it was hypocritical to showcase the city as an international AIDS leader while the provincial government imposed ruthless funding cuts to HIV/AIDS programs and services.

BCPWA capitalized on the International AIDS Conference to advocate for the renewal of the National AIDS Strategy (NAS), due to expire in 1998. To get NAS back on the political agenda and expose the inadequacy of federal funding, the Society orchestrated a protest march from the Vancouver Public Library to General Motors Place, site of the 1996 conference.

The demonstration received global media attention and was influential in the December 1997 renewal of NAS. The re-named

Canadian HIV/AIDS Strategy committed $42.2 million per year with no expiry period on funding.

Equality with respect to medical treatment and health care has been an ongoing challenge for persons with AIDS. PWAs have been categorically denied liver transplants in British Columbia, despite evidence that HIV-positive candidates have equivalent survival rates to uninfected transplant recipients.

Since the fall of 2003, the BC Transplant Society has assessed HIV-positive patients for transplant eligibility but has yet to approve a candidate for the procedure.

Positive Living BC always sought to broaden its mandate as a model organization for the provision of community HIV services and resources. One such program, Peer Navigation Services, commenced operations in 2007 as a partnership between Positive Living BC (then BCPWA), the John Ruedy Immunodeficiency Clinic (IDC) at St. Paul’s Hospital, and the Vancouver STOP Project.

Members of the community recognized that there was a need for a service that connected newly diagnosed PLHIV medical care and support services, as well as a service that simultaneously connected those living with HIV who were not engaging with the health care system.

As part of its continuing efforts to de-stigmatize and change attitudes regarding HIV, the Society also underwent a rebranding process to highlight how the disease has evolved over the years.

Changing the Society’s name from BC Persons with AIDS to Positive Living BC in 2011 acknowledged moving beyond the crisis of the early years of HIV/AIDS to a more modern conception of chronic HIV disease. “By choosing to remove ‘AIDS’ from our public identity,” said then-Society chair Glyn Townson, “[our] members have sent a strong message about the role HIVpositive individuals intend to play in BC’s cultural landscape.

Old labels no longer apply, and no longer will they set us apart from any other British Columbian. ’Positive Living’ defines us by the active, healthy approach we now take to life with our disease.”

Excerpts taken from The Positive Living Society of BC: A History of Mutual Support and Collective Action.

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To HAES with diet culture!

You

By Cristel Moubarak

might have heard of the Health At Every Size (HAES) movement which has become more known and talked about in recent years, though it dates back to the 1960s. From the name alone, a lot of questions arise, and many misconceptions follow, like, does that mean everyone is healthy regardless of their size? Does that mean you don’t need to eat healthy?

Does that mean you should give up on caring for your body? Not quite.

What is HAES? Simply speaking, the HAES movement is a war against diet culture. Diet culture is the norm in our society. It’s our obsession of “following [insert restricted diet]” and being “fit” or “ripped.” This is all founded on having the privilege to spend time and money on gym memberships, accessing fresh foods, or spending 8-10 hours a week on meal prep. For many, this is not feasible.

HAES is a scientifically-backed movement based on five principles: Weight Inclusivity, Health Enhancement, Respectful Care, Eating for Well-being, and Life-Enhancing Movement. HAES promotes: Access to respectful health care by everybody, shape and size; Focus on health-promoting behaviours, not numbers; Experience of joyful movement in a variety of activities that is void of the “no pain, no gain” concept; finally, nourishment based on hunger, pleasure, and nutritional needs.

What about weight? Well, It’s not the actual weight or body size that is unhealthy; it’s the specific behaviours that make up health.

The old adage “eat less, exercise more” is often repeated... until you eat too little, and exercise too much… until you feel so frustrated and angry that you give up and have a binge session… until you gain the weight back, feel guilt, shame, and disgust… and repeat.

This is known as the “restrict-binge cycle” and it’s all too common when pursuing an “ideal weight.”

Even though dietitians still track weights for clients they never change their philosophy and health behaviour education based on weight. Just knowing that number does not change what you could do to improve your health like eating often, diversifying your diet, staying hydrated, sleeping well, and reducing stress.

Per the HAES principles, eating is not defined by nutritional needs. If you identify your own eating patterns based on external cues like time of day or calorie count, then responding to true hunger cues may have been lost. Once rediscovering intuitive eating cues become common practice, eating becomes a lot more pleasurable and requires less mental occupation.

There’s no one way of eating that works for everyone. Consider food values such as convenience, taste, cost, sustainability, ease of preparation, accessibility, and availability. Explore personal needs for overall health improvement, or consider giving up dieting for good.

No number could ever measure up to your worth. Creating and living in more kindness and gratitude with yourself will bring more generous health to the body, mind, and soul.

If this inspired you to take the next step and seek help or support with your health journey, find a dietitian in BC here: bcdietitians.ca 5 Cristel Moubarak is a non-diet dietitian providing nutrition coaching for food freedom and body peace at nutriFoodie.ca

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Brain link to STI/HIV sexual risk

p Data show that young adult women

in the US have high rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that increase their risk of HIV. Though epidemiologic and behavioural factors for risk have been studied, we know very little about brain factors that may be linked to STI/HIV sexual risk.

Research has begun to show neural correlates associated with behaviour that increase the risk of STIs; much of the early work has focused on adolescents and the role of cortical regulatory circuits. These “executive” circuits govern the pull of rewards and allow an individual to evaluate choices and future consequences associated with a particular behaviour (e.g., whether to have sex or not) and enable inhibition of behaviour associated with risks (e.g., sex without a condom). Surprisingly, there has been less research in the (subcortical) brain circuits for reward and motivation themselves, and their role in sexual risk.

In a new National Institutes of Health (NIH/NIMH) study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and the Perelman School of Medicine, researchers assessed the link between sexual risk and the brain and behavioural response to sexual cues in emerging adult women.

They found that young women who are at increased risk for STIs and/or HIV through inconsistent condom use by a partner have a decreased response to sexual cues in motivational circuits and feel less positively about sexual stimuli compared to women whose partners used condoms consistently.

Though the data are correlational, regular condom use in a relationship may

reflect greater caring and consideration for untoward consequences, especially for the woman’s risks — contributing to a more positive emotional and brain response to sexual stimuli. Worth noting, these findings contrast to previous studies in men, where a heightened brain response to sexual cues was linked to greater sexual risk behaviours.

Source: www.eurekalert.org

Smallpox immunity disappears despite vaccine

p HIV patients lose immunity to

smallpox even though they were vaccinated against the disease as children and have had much of their immune system restored with antiretroviral therapy (ART), says a new study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

The study on HIV-associated immune amnesia could explain why people living with HIV (PLHIV) still tend to have shorter lives on average than their HIV-negative counterparts, despite being on ART. The study follows recent research from the journals Science and Science Immunology that found the immune systems of children who contracted measles similarly ‘forgot’ their immunity against other illnesses such as influenza.

The National AIDS Control Organisation estimates the number of PLHIV in India at 2.1 million. India is estimated to have around 88,000 new HIV infections in 2017, registering a decline by 85 percent since the peak of 1995 and by 27 percent between 2010-2017, the data revealed.

The World Health Organization declared that smallpox had been eradicated from India in the 1970s. For the study, lead reP5SITIVE LIVING | 7 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

searcher Mark K. Slifka, from Oregon Health and Science University in the US, and his colleagues compared the T-cell and antibody responses of a total of 100 HIV-positive and HIV-negative women who were vaccinated against smallpox in their youth.

The research team chose smallpox because its last known US case was in 1949, meaning study participants haven’t recently been exposed to the virus, which would have triggered new T-cell and antibody responses. They found the immune systems of HIV-positive women who were on ART had a limited response when their blood was exposed to the Vaccinia virus (VV), which is used in the smallpox vaccine.

Normally, those vaccinated against smallpox have CD4 T-cells that remember the virus and respond in large numbers when they’re exposed again. Previous research has shown smallpox virus-specific CD4 T-cells are maintained for up to 75 years after vaccination.

This finding happened despite the fact that ART works by boosting CD4 T-cell counts in HIV-positive patients. This indicates that while ART may boost total T-cell counts overall, it can’t recover virus-specific T-cells generated from prior childhood vaccinations.

Source: www.freepressjournal.in

CTAC comes to a close

p In a statement, the board chair of the

Canadian Treatment Action Council (CTAC), Terry Pigeon, announced that the organization would be closing its doors at the end of January 2020.

“Since CTAC lost federal funding [in] March 31st 2017, we were resolved to continue the work for which we were

known for. While we did receive funding from other sources and were able to complete a number of important projects ... we have not been able to secure additional funding to enable [us] to continue operating. The Board has a moral responsibility to ensure that the reputation of CTAC remain intact and a fiscal responsibility to meet our financial obligations. With that in mind, we feel that we have no other alternative than to cease operations.”

CTAC was founded in 1996. The original mandate was solely focused on improving the lives of PLHIV, but was expanded to include hepatitis C co-infection in 2010. CTAC’s life-saving work includes getting people with HIV/hep C coinfection access to much-needed liver transplants.

How HIV develops resistance to key drugs discovered

p The mechanism behind how HIV can

develop resistance to a widely-prescribed group of drugs has been uncovered by new research from the Crick and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, with the findings opening the door to the development of more effective treatments.

Today, a number of drugs are available which help to control HIV infection, including a group called integrase strand transfer inhibitors. There are four drugs within this family of medication: raltegravir, elvitegravir, dolutegravir, and bictegravir. They all work by binding with one of HIV’s key enzymes, called integrase, to stop it from inserting the virus’ genetic information into human DNA. While initially highly effective, HIV can develop resistance to these drugs over time.

The study, published online in Science this January, discovered the mechanism HIV uses to develop resistance to this group of drugs. Although the drugs are normally quite effective at binding and blocking integrase, over time, the virus can weaken this bond and thus enable its key enzyme to work again.

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London uncovered this by exploring the structure of integrase from a virus that is highly similar to the ancestor of HIV, using cryo-electron microscopy. This technique uses a powerful microscope which fires electrons at a frozen sample of the drug-enzyme complex. By recording how the electrons interact with the samples, the researchers created detailed images, at a nearly atom-by-atom level.

“This research is an outstanding example of how we can use cryo-electron microscopy to reveal the intricate relationships between drugs and their targets, providing results that could lead to clinical benefit,” said Peter Rosenthal, the head of the Structural Biology of Cells and Viruses laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute.

Source: www.crick.ac.uk

New digital tool lowers depression in PLHIV

p Globally more than 36 million people

are living with HIV, and a third of them have elevated depressive symptoms. Most PLHIV live in developing countries with limited access to mental health services due to HIV-related stigma and a shortage of mental health professionals. Widely accessible smart phones offer a promising intervention delivery mode to address this gap.

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Dr. Alicia Hong, Professor at George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services, and her colleagues in China have developed the digital intervention Run4Love on the popular social media app, WeChat. They evaluated Run4Love with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of 300 PLWH with depression in China, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Run4Love was a multimedia digital program adapted from evidence-based Cognitive Behavioural Stress Management courses. Participants received stress reduction exercises, cognitive therapy, and exercise guidance on WeChat. Their progress was monitored with timely, tailored feedback. The intervention led to a significant reduction in depressive symptoms (0.6 effect size) in 3-, 6- and 9-month follow-ups and reduced stress, suicidal behaviours, and improved quality of life.

“This is one of the first large RCTs with long-term follow-up to evaluate digital interventions in global health settings,” said Dr. Hong. “The success of Run4Love suggests an app-based digital intervention is feasible for many PLWH in resource-limited settings.”

Source: www.eurekalert.org 5

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UP of taboo

Sex with an Ex

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By Jaylene Acheson

elationships come and go but when it comes to letting go, it can be more difficult to do so. Letting go not only from the person but the sex as well. One thing that differentiates most romantic relationships from other human connections is the expression of love through your rocking bodies (i.e., sexy times).

Even if a friend holds our arms back from wrapping themselves around an ex-lover, all that we may want is to reconnect to that avenue of expression. It was a defining aspect of how you showed and received love and lust.

Although feelings may have changed, the urges often remain. But when are we most likely to give in to those urges?

A study by Dr. Stephanie Spielmann of Wayne State University showed that the people who couldn’t get their partner out of their heads were more likely to pursue a post-relationship coital session. (However, this doesn’t mean that every time we crave naked fun with our ex we want to get back together.)

With a history together, you may feel more comfortable sharing a bed with someone who already knows your body, rather than seeking a new accomplice to fulfill your sexual desires. And sometimes the exploration of a new person can take a lot of energy or just feel daunting. About 20 percent of people jump back into bed with their ex within four months post-breakup.

What does it mean to our healing process if we get naked with our ex during the post-breakup time? Spielmann’s study looked at the outcome of revisiting past sheets you have rolled in: throughout the various hookups, there seemed to be no difference or collective reaction from abstaining or persuing sex with an ex.

Spielmann’s study showed the many ways each of us deal with feelings post-relationship, instead of the universal judgement that having post-break up sex is “unhealthy.”

Unhealthy sex goes beyond what your relationship status is with this person: will sleeping with your past lover compromise your personal boundaries and self worth?

One conclusion that did arise was that people who slept with their ex reported feeling an increase to their overall mood over the next couple of days. Of course, having sex, in general, helps your overall mood.

Another area to focus on: closure. There are many reasons to sleep with an ex soon after ending things. A forward-thinking approach for making this reunion a more healing process is to go in with the intention of embracing the end of your time sharing yourself with this person. If you want to move on, that is.

At times the idea of having sex can give hope to the possibility of rekindling a relationship. This motivation, compared to closure, is trickier as our expectations rely on the other person rather than relying upon yourself to push on. Either way, reflecting about what that reconnection in bed meant for you will give you more answers about what you are seeking for yourself in this moment of life change. 5 Jaylene Acheson is a sex coach who works with individuals and couples towards a fulfilling sex life through sexuality empowerment workshops.

Find her on Instagram and Facebook @femmeforth.

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Targeting AIDS Service Organizations Social services for PLHIV face critical challenges ... again

By Wayne Campbell

S

ince their creation in the 1980’s as a parallel social service system to serve HIV-positive gay men, AIDS service organizations (ASOs) have wrestled with questions of what they are and who they serve. But never in their past identity crises have ASOs been less certain than they are today of their very survival as freestanding communitybased agencies.

Beginning with the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART, better known as “combination treatment”), ASOs have struggled to stay relevant as single-disease organizations. As the HIV epidemic in Canada continues to shift from middle-class gay men to lower-income persons who use substances, it has become harder to justify the need for agencies focused only on those with HIV when clients’ priorities have more to do with their lack of income than with their HIV status.

The first ASOs struggled with whether they should focus on providing services to sick people with AIDS or advocate for political change. AIDS services were mostly provided by volunteers with a few professionals helping to steer things. Services during this

period were aimed at keeping people living with AIDS out of the hospital and instead living at home, functioning well and for as long as possible. Even early on there was disagreement as to whether ASOs should be involved in advocating for political change. Positive Living BC was created out of the need to advocate for systemic changes to the political and medical landscape and to be a voice for the disenfranchised in BC. Soon many organizations formalized their identity and function(s) in their community.

By the late 80’s and into the early 90’s, there was disagreement, even malice, over just how “professional” the formerly volunteer-run organizations should be. As funding was secured, staff were hired and a sense of professionalism crept into agencies, creating tensions between the original volunteer base and the new volunteers and staff who had been given a mandate to move the agency forward. Malice centered on HIV-negative staff persons, perceived to be profiteering from an industry created on the deaths of the positive people they served.

Infusion of millions of dollars from the Canadian Federal Government heightened the identity crisis. Strings attached to

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that funding tied many ASOs in knots sorting out whether they were “AIDS,” “harm reduction,” or “poverty support” organizations let alone who were their primary client base. New organizations popped up hoping to address perceived gaps in service provision, especially population specific groups.

The 1996 arrival of HAART meant previously terminally ill people no longer needed many of the specialized services ASOs provided. Agencies began focusing on HIV prevention programs targeting positive people, clients returning to active living and shifted from planning funerals to how to re-integrate people into the workforce.



Before we shelve ASOs as leftovers from a desperate past we should reflect on the purpose as to who is served by these agencies. 

A number of new and innovative programs appeared at this time like those related to employment. In Vancouver, we also saw the major shift in the dynamics of who was being diagnosed. A public health emergency was declared in the Downtown EastSide, with rates of infections resembling those in Sub-Saharan Africa at the same time. Agencies scrambled to incorporate harm reduction tools into their programming. Poverty supports became a priority, moving agencies away from traditional HIV-specific services.

Today another identity crisis has brought ASOs full circle to the same two fundamental questions: Do HIV-positive people need our service agencies? Or can those services for HIV-positive people be integrated more efficiently and cost-effectively into already existing social service organizations?

When HIV was declared a chronic manageable disease, many people shunned ASO’s believing their services were designed for people dying from AIDS. Some organizations underwent a rebranding process to reflect the state HIV-positive people were experiencing – living a long productive life with HIV. The latest, perhaps even the last crises, is whether a single disease organization can survive the policy and funding requirements as mandates are stretched beyond their original intent.

For the sake of securing ongoing funding, many organizations expanded into a blood-borne pathogen model, incorporating issues like viral hepatitis. Some organizations folded while others salvaged any successful programming those closing ASOs had

been running. A notable example, when Western Canadian Pediatric AIDS Society closed its doors, YouthCo picked up the very popular Camp Moomba program.

Do we, as HIV-positive people today, need our own service agencies? Or can services for HIV-positive people be more efficiently and cost-effectively integrated into existing social service organizations? Before we shelve ASOs as leftovers from a desperate time in our past we should take a moment to reflect on the purpose as to who is served by these agencies. It boils down to this: the rest of the system could not meet the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS. One of the great legacies of the HIV epidemic is the model of compassionate, culturally relevant, holistic health care and social services created and practiced by many different sectors of society.

As we near the forty-year mark of the HIV epidemic, no one can predict the future of ASOs. Until a cure is found we can be sure that people with HIV will continue to have unmet needs; wraparound services mean the difference for a person with low income between living with HIV and dying from AIDS. Which organizations provide these services is ultimately less important than that they are provided. Making sure those services do not just “go away” is now one of the greatest challenges facing everyone working to address HIV. Through the years we have seen the closure of a number of ASOs — Black AIDS Network (BAN), Asian Society for the Intervention of AIDS (ASIA), Positive Women’s Network, Healing Our Spirit, Red Road HIV/AIDS Network, Western Canadian Pediatric AIDS Society, Victoria AIDS Resource & Community Service Society (VARCS), Canadian Treatment Action Council and, now, Positive Living BC. Through the years every ASO has experienced tough periods when it looked like nothing was working in their favour. Many agencies stuck it out and managed to survive and even thrive.

Others limped along before folding. Some experienced dramatic closures due to unforeseen personnel and financial mismanagement.

It is important to acknowledge that funders do not see this disease as a high priority as every new public health emergency is given priority to funding and resources. Unfortunately, we will probably see a resurgence of HIV in Canada and wonder where are the services and funding that will assist the next wave of diagnoses. 5 Wayne Campbell is Treatment Outreach Coordinator at the Positive Living Society of BC.

P5SITIVE LIVING | 11 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

Language matters How watching your tongue helps against stigma

By Hesham Ali

2020

is under way and many people have already broken their New Year’s resolutions. This is not unusual, but rather attributable to the random way we think of making changes in our lives. There is no reason not to make a resolution to improve something in one’s life on July 6th instead of on New Year’s Day. I cannot escape human nature, so I made a resolution for 2020: to fight stigma by using appropriate language.

Humans internalize many phobias and self-stigmatize without being aware of it. Language is a powerful tool.

Arguably, it’s language that allowed humans to achieve so much. If we cannot effectively share an idea or a thought, we cannot explore space.

But language also plays a role in how we think of ourselves and others. It can be subtle or done on a subconscious level.

We label and classify people all the time. We use language intentionally to hurt others or to elicit a reaction. But we are seldom aware of our language when it is unintentionally hurtful or causing stigma in our daily lives.

Direct, honest language plays a positive role in reducing stigma. We shouldn’t use language that is vague, unclear, or euphemistic to communicate. One of the most irritating questions anyone can ask is, “are you clean?” That question should only ever be asked about hygiene; It should never be used to ask someone whether they are living with HIV and/or if they use drugs. The implication being if someone is living with HIV or consumes drugs then they are “dirty.” Well, they’re not dirty.

I meet people all the time who use this language and often they get away with it, including people living with HIV and/or who use drugs. This is a form of internalized stigma. Now, if you haven’t already noticed, I used the proper term “someone living with HIV” rather than someone who is HIV-positive. That latter doesn’t even make any sense. No one is a disease; one can only be living with or managing a disease. When you test positive for the flu, you are not flu-positive, you have the flu! We should never define anyone by one aspect of their lives. This dehumanizes them and reduces them to a characteristic.

I am not advocating for compelled speech, but I hope we can all take the time to reflect on our language. Be mindful, respectful, and less stigmatizing toward others. Fight stigma by using proper words and challenging others when they use hurtful language whether intentional or not.

Here are some examples of non-stigmatizing language. If you want to ask someone’s HIV status, then use direct language, don’t ask,“Are you clean?” Always use People or someone living with HIV, don’t use “I am or s/he is HIV-positive.” Don’t use words like “risk factors,” but use “likely or contributing factors.” Use “condom-less” or “condom sex” rather than “protection.” Avoid demeaning language regarding sexual practices (“You’re a slut.”) Use respectful language around drug use, and please never use “junkie” or “addict.”

Ending stigma is not something that will just happen. It requires that all of us contribute in whichever way we can towards that goal. If you join me in my resolution, I wish us both the best of luck. 5 Hesham Ali is a Peer Navigator at Positive Living Society of BC.

P5SITIVE LIVING | 12 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

Thriving and surviving Waging a war of positive thinking against cancer

By Dakota Descoteaux

Oh no!

‘Not again!’ Those were my thoughts (or were they internal screams?) when I was told my cancer had returned.

Two years after my initial cancer diagnosis in 2017, I wasn’t ready to hear it had returned. That spring, what presented as a fissure that didn’t heal

on the middle back of my tongue led to a doctor’s appointment to have a look. That resulted in a follow-up visit to see a head and neck surgeon for a biopsy to confirm that it was oral cancer. Squamous cell carcinoma, to be specific. In the paragraphs ahead, I will share with you my two-and-a-half year journey through my recent cancer treatments to getting to the other side, intact and cancer free. I invite you to come with me! continued next page

P5SITIVE LIVING | 13 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

January 2020 marks 34 years since I was told that I was HIV-positive. I am shocked (and overjoyed) to still be here three decades on. I was told 10 years would be a best-case scenario for my own survival. So, to hear that as a 27-year-old, and to still be here in my sixties is beyond whatever I thought possible.

I was in a relationship at the time of my diagnosis, and my partner, Andre, was also told the same news around that time. Sadly, Andre died five years later, in 1991. AIDS-related dementia came into play in his final months, along with wasting syndrome and bouts of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP). He waged a valiant fight, but ultimately AIDS won. You can only imagine the grief I felt. At the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder if what I witnessed with Andre’s rapid health decline would be my own fate in the coming months or years, if I was lucky enough to have years.

In 2017, discussions took place with my oncologist and surgical cancer team. They presented me with my options: surgery to remove my entire tongue or a prolonged course of radiation treatment as an alternative.

I had some radiation treatment back in the mid-1990s.

That was a different time, seeming like another lifetime ago, when AIDS first become visible on my body. Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) lesions sprouting up on my face, including my eyelids and both ears, head, arms, and legs, as well as the dangly bit in the back of my throat.

In 1995 and 1996, the KS lesions grew from the size of a small mole to a quarter and even beyond. The lesions were zapped with radiation beams along with weekly chemotherapy. Because these beams were treating the back of my throat, as well as the dozens of other places the lesions were showing up on my body, my previous radiation exposure needed to be studied before moving forward. (There is only so much radiation humans can safely endure over the course of their lifetime.)

Remarkably, the BC Cancer Agency had kept all my treatment records from that time. In a file the size of a Vancouver phone book of the same era. That file needed to be reviewed to see if I qualified for more radiation. There are lifetime limits to this type of exposure or it does more harm than good.

As it happens, I was qualified to have more radiation treatments some 20 years later to save my tongue, and possibly my life.

I was grateful to have that choice, after contemplating life without a tongue. It doesn’t take much time in that contemplation zone to think that not talking or eating or swallowing would diminish one’s quality of life.

My next step was to listen to my oncologist describe the challenges and side-effects, some temporary, some permanent, of having to undergo seven weeks of daily radiation to my tongue. That was not an uplifting appointment by any standard.

“Ugh!”’ I thought. I was grateful to have my husband Scott with me for these appointments, to ask additional questions, take notes, and support me through the process.

Treatment began at the end of July, 2017: two chemotherapy treatments, with the radiation following a short time afterwards.

The radiation came with some initial anxiety with the mask (looking like a goalie mask) restraining me snugly on the gurney for the high-tech, high-priced machine to move around me overhead. I visualized the rays zapping my cancer and sending it into retreat. The five minutes seemed longer, but it was over and I survived. Days two and three were repeats of this, but in a short time I had built a tolerance to the procedure.



Every time I would lament these complications to my life, I’would think about not having my tongue and make peace with it. 

There are no initial side-effects to radiation; fatigue comes later. The side-effect that I was going to focus on the most was the eradication of the tumour on my tongue. The other ones would be made tolerable if I could achieve this result. After a month, I could no longer eat because of the pain in my mouth.

A feeding tube was installed in my stomach, with a dangly bit to pump in Boost or Ensure four times a day. I lost weight. I needed heavy-duty pain medication to get through the agony.

This was a rough time.

My voice was affected as well, as it grew quite craggy. It worsened to where there were days where I couldn’t speak at all. Soon the time had come for the treatments to end, and to

P5SITIVE LIVING | 14 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

play a waiting game for a couple of months. My positive thinking worked. The news from the doctor following my December MRI let me know that I had beaten the cancer. This was around Christmas 2017, so it was a pretty amazing Christmas gift.

2018 was pretty smooth, and my recovery continued. My taste buds came back, and I was able to eat again, having had the feeding tube that sustained me for three months removed.

The most notable lingering side-effect from the treatments that persists to this day is the eradication of my saliva production.

That makes life a little trickier for eating, requiring lots of sips of water to get through a meal. It also causes food to stick to every tooth surface, with a longer teeth-cleaning procedure necessary after every meal as well. Every time I would lament these added complications to my life, I would think about not having my tongue at all and make peace with it. Reality checks have a way of helping in these situations.

Subsequent checkups brought good news. But in March of 2019, a lesion appeared on the underside of my tongue. I wasn’t sure what it was. Looking different than the fissure that defined my first cancer diagnosis, I didn’t think much about it at first. When it didn’t heal within a couple of weeks, a biopsy revealed that in fact it was cancer.

After months of tracking it, my medical team advised me that surgery was my only option. They would remove a part of my tongue, with a margin of safety. I dreaded the thought of having a sizable chunk of my tongue removed, impacting my speech and ability to eat. Soon, however, I made peace with it.

In the weeks between diagnosis and surgery, I attended the naturopathic clinic at Positive Living once a week to boost my immune system.

I feel that support (supplements, acupuncture, and nutritional guidance) played a role in being told by the surgeon that there was no other cancer found in my tongue following my surgery, and that no further action would be required. There was a fifty-fifty chance he would have had to remove more of my tongue if it showed up in the biopsy.

At the time of this writing, late 2019, I am a month past the big event, and speaking much better than I thought I would be. Eating is still tricky because of the nerve pain I am challenged with, which also shows up when I speak for more than a few minutes. I am grateful that I had one of the best oral surgeons in Vancouver working with me in addition to my two oncologists.

What I have learned over the years through magazine articles, forums, and online research, is that we long-term survivors are at a higher risk for different cancers and health conditions. I have made it a priority to make the best choices for my own best health outcomes through diet, exercise, and smoking cessation. Rather than feeling powerless while waiting for the next health challenge to appear, I feel like I have a role in how this all goes, and I do my best.



I have found that for my own survival all these years, it is important to be hopeful and think positive thoughts. 

Having dealt with KS, an ARV-related heart attack in 2006, and now cancer, I do not feel defeated by these challenges. My survival instinct rises up to fight and challenge these diagnoses, with the mentality that I will triumph, and live to celebrate life another day.

Even with the ongoing pain I am currently living with, I figure it will only be temporary while I continue to heal. I believe that and look forward to my life ahead.

While all of us living with HIV have unique health challenges to navigate, we still have the power to be in control of our destiny. Life is a journey with so many unknowns. I am fully trusting that a life worth living and enjoying will return after the healing. I have found that for my own survival, it is important to be hopeful and think positive thoughts. It has worked for me all these years, and now another chapter lies ahead for this longterm thriver and survivor.

If you are interested in following my ongoing journey through cancer, you can check out my blog where I write about my experiences at https://beyond-healing.blogspot.com. 5

Dakota is currently a trainer/facilitator for the Positive Leadership Development Institute (PLDI), offering leadership training to the HIV-positive community of BC through PAN.

P5SITIVE LIVING | 15 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

CHANGE HIV: A Healthy Aging Study We

do not know a lot about HIV and aging. The CHANGE HIV study (CTN 314 Correlates of Healthy Aging iN GEriatric HIV Study) is setting out to find some answers.

Despite more people now aging with HIV, little research has been done into just what it is like to grow older with the virus and especially the factors that enable PLHIV to age well. CTN314 aims to rectify this by giving this population a platform to share their experiences: “A collective voice is much louder than an individual voice…and can hopefully change policy, change strategies, and inform younger physicians,” Rosemarie Clarke, CHANGE HIV project manager, told a gathering at Positive Living BC in November. .

CTN 314 is a collaborative, fiveyear study designed in concert with the community. It looks to recruit 750 PLHIV Canadians aged 65 and over. Participants will make three complete visits every 18 months. Each visit is split into three sub-visits, where they will take questionnaires about their life at that time and do a few light physical maneuvers.

Through the questionnaires, the researchers will be looking not only at aging with HIV, but healthy aging with HIV: “We don’t want to just look at the infection or the clinical issues, such as cardiovascular risk or diabetes. We want to look at the

whole person, so we are collecting data on quality of life, loneliness, contributions to society, food security, income.... You name it, we’re collecting it,” Clarke said.

An optional part of the study involves determination of the relationship between fibre intake, inflammation and the microbiome, and how they may relate to healthy aging or even length of life.

Participants who choose to take part in this section of the study must keep a three-day food diary, and will provide various swab samples at two of the visits.

The researchers hope to have a registry that details just what it is like to age with HIV. Do people feel more resilient? Do they face new challenges? Do they have access to the right resources or care systems? Once complete, this registry could have many implications and aid the development of knowledge translation tools that reach students, doctors, community, and policy makers. This will also be an opportunity to develop interventional studies to help PLHIV age well.

Visit www.changehivstudy.com for more information. 5 Hannah Branch is the Communications Officer at the CTN.

P5SITIVE LIVING | 17 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

By Hanna Branch

Other Studies enrolling in BC CTNPT 030

Feasibility of crystal meth interventions among GBMSM BC Sites: St. Paul’s, University of Victoria

CTNPT 036

Novel Assay for Syphilis BC Site: BCCDC Provincial STI Clinic

CTN 283

The I-Score Study BC site: Vancouver ID clinic

CTN 291-2

Preterm Births in HIV+ Pregnancies BC Site: BC Women’s Hospital

CTN 292A

Screening for high-grade anal dysplasia in HIV+ MSM BC site: St. Paul’s

CTN 292B

Treatment of high-grade anal dysplasia in HIV+ MSM BC site: St. Paul’s

CTN 300

The Engage Study BC Site: St. Paul’s Hospital

CTN 314

CHANGE HIV BC Site: St. Paul’s Hospital

Visit the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network database at www.hivnet.ubc.ca for more info.

B

etween cable news, Buzzfeed, Facebook headlines, social media, and countless sources of information, it’s not easy for everyone to separate real news from fake news. This is especially true when it comes to understanding scientific news.

I often receive articles about HIV vaccines or cures and other HIV-related issues from people I know who either totally misunderstood the article or got it wrong altogether. That is not to say that they are not smart enough or somehow lacking in education. The problem is just that it’s hard to get the right information the way the media often reports it. Scientists and researchers are not journalists, and with some exceptions, journalists are not scientists. But your typical working journalist is more generalist than an expert; there are great science writers out there, but they are outnumbered by writers untrained in the sciences who are assigned to cover a story like coronavirus.

Headlines sell, and the more eye catching, sensational, or controversial the better. Most of the time, people don’t have the time or inclination to go beyond the headline or the sub-text to read the full article. Even when you read the full article, sometimes it is hard to figure out the right information. Either because there

By Hesham Ali is necessary background information that is missing or the writer does not grasp the subject. This is most evident in medical and scientific news. The subject matter is complex and often there is an assumption that the reader already has the basic understanding or education on the subject.



There are great science writers out there, but they are outnumbered by writers untrained in the sciences assigned to cover coronavirus. Does this mean you need a doctorate degree to get the right information? No, but you need to consider a few things to make an informed opinion.

First, consider the source. The source needs to be trusted, with an established reputation, and clear guidelines about how they measure their information to determine its accuracy. As for the author, what level of expertise do they have on the P5SITIVE LIVING | 18 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

subject? The Lancet HIV and AIDSMAP, for example, are trusted, reputable sources for HIV-related news written by ethical, learned experts. Some random blog on Medium written by a person with no medical or scientific credentials?

Not so much.

Second, ask “what are the chances?” to determine whether the information is true or false. As in, what are the chances that a small, obscure university or research centre has found a cure for HIV? It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, but it is unlikely. Check the institution out online. Is it Johns Hopkins or the college equivalent to Baskin Robbins?

Third, be skeptical. Never take things at face value or come to a conclusion without doing some research on your own.

It takes some patience and effort, but it’s worthwhile to take the time to check the veracity of the information on social media or other news sources. If the story is legit, it’ll be talked about across many platforms.

Always check with an expert in the field if you have concerns or questions about the veracity of the content. 5 Hesham Ali is a Peer Navigator with Positive Living Society of BC.

For a full list of donors visit positivelivingbc.org

$5000+ LEGACY CIRCLE Peter Chung

$1000 - $2499 CHAMPIONS Don Evans Blair Smith Joss De Wet Fraser Norrie Paul Goyan Malcolm Hedgcock Paul Gross

$500 - $999 LEADERS

William Granger Stanley Moore Cheryl Basarab Cliff Hall Dean Mirau Emet Davis James Goodman Michael Holmwood Rebecca Johnston Pierre Soucy Christian Denarie Brian Lambert

$150 - $499 HEROES

Carmine Digiovanni Dennis Parkinson Edith Davidson Patricia E. Young Rob Spooner Stephen French Stephanie Tofield Tom McAulay Barry DeVito George Schwab Jane Talbot Patricia Dyck Penny Parry Ron Hogan Ross Harvey Susan Burgess Wayne Avery Darrin Pope John Yano Bonnie Pearson Dena Ellery Glynis Davisson Jamie Rokovetsky Jean Sebastian Hartell John Bishop Keith Stead Lawrence Cryer Lorne Berkovitz Mark Mees Maxine Davis Ralph Silvea Ronald Stipp P5SITIVE LIVING | 19 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

Ross Thompson Sergio Pereira Vince Connors Jeff anderson James Ong Glyn Townson Gretchen Dulmage Ken Coolen Brian Yuen Len Christiansen Michael McKimm Katherine Richmond

$20 - $149 FRIENDS

Christopher Clark Adrienne Wong Chris Kean Heather Inglis Lindsay Mearns Lisa Raichle Miranda Leffler Tobias Donaldson Adrian Smith Christine Leclerc HansKrishna Von Hagen Andrea Reimer Angela McGie Catherine Jenkins Lisa Bradbury Sharon Lou-Hing Tracey Hearst Zoran Stjepanovic

PROFILE OF A VOLUNTEER Percy is a wonderful and talented individual; he has done numerous video editing projects for Positive Living BC. Percy carried on a full time job while still volunteering for us. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to the Society.

Shafiyah Khan, Communications Coordinator

* Prashant “Percy” Bhardwaj * What is your volunteer history with Positive Living?

What is Positive Living BC ‘s strongest point?

Why did you pick Positive Living BC?

What is your favourite memory of your time at Positive Living BC?

Various digital editing projects, such as extracting excerpts from recorded interviews. The History Alive project, for example.

To support the HIV/AIDS cause and help spread their message with my editing skills.

How would you rate Positive Living BC?

One of the best! a friendly environment full of supportive people.

The folks who run the organization have the understanding of what they do because of their lived experiences.

My initial interview with Marc Seguin. He represented the society’s friendly environment in that interview.

It helped me understand that I could contribute with complete freedom of creative expression.

What do you see in the future for Positive Living BC?

I look forward to contributing more as a volunteer to support the cause as best I can.

P5SITIVE LIVING | 20 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

Where to find

HELP

If you’re looking for help of information on HIV/AIDS, the following list is a starting point.

For more comprehensive listings of HIV/AIDS organizations and services, please visit www.positivelivingbc.org/links

bA LOVING SPOONFUL

1449 Powell St, Vancouver, BC V5L 1G8  604.682.6325  clients@alovingspoonful.org  lovingspoonful.org

cAIDS SOCIETY OF KAMLOOPS

(ASK WELLNESS CENTRE) 433 Tranquille Road Kamloops, BC V2B 3G9  250.376.7585 or 1.800.661.7541  info@askwellness.ca  askwellness.ca

bAIDS VANCOUVER

1101 Seymour St Vancouver, BC V6B 0R1  604.893.2201  contact@aidsvancouver.org  aidsvancouver.org

bAIDS VANCOUVER ISLAND (Victoria)

713 Johnson Street, 3rd Floor Victoria, BC V8W 1M8  250.384.2366 or 1.800.665.2437  info@avi.org  avi.org

bAIDS VANCOUVER ISLAND (Courtenay)  250.338.7400 or 1.877.311.7400  info@avi.org  avi.org/courtenay

bAIDS VANCOUVER ISLAND (Nanaimo)  250.753.2437 or 1.888.530.2437

 info@avi.org  avi.org/nanaimo

bAIDS VANCOUVER ISLAND (Port Hardy)  250.902.2238  info@avi.org  avi.org/porthardy

bANKORS (EAST)

46 - 17th Avenue South Cranbrook, BC V1C 5A8  250.426.3383 or 1.800.421.AIDS  gary@ankors.bc.ca  ankors.bc.ca

bANKORS (WEST)

101 Baker Street Nelson, BC V1L 4H1

 250.505.5506 or 1.800.421.AIDS  information@ankors.bc.ca  ankors.bc.ca

bDR. PETER CENTRE

1110 Comox Street Vancouver, BC V6E 1K5  604.608.1874  info@drpetercentre.ca  drpetercentre.ca

bLIVING POSITIVE

RESOURCE CENTRE OKANAGAN 168 Asher Road Kelowna, BC V1X 3H6  778.753.5830 or 1.800.616.2437  info@lprc.ca  livingpositive.ca

bMCLAREN HOUSING

200-649 Helmcken Street Vancouver, BC V6B 5R1  604.669.4090  info@mclarenhousing.com  mclarenhousing.com

bOKANAGAN ABORIGINAL AIDS SOCIETY 200-3717 Old Okanagan Way Westbank, BC V4T 2H9  778.754.5595  info@oaas.ca  oaas.ca

bPOSITIVE LIVING

FRASER VALLEY SOCIETY Unit 1 – 2712 Clearbrook Road Abbotsford, BC V2T 2Z1  604.854.1101  info@plfv.org  plfv.org

bPOSITIVE LIVING NORTH

#1 - 1563 Second Avenue Prince George, BC V2L 3B8  250.562.1172 or 1.888.438.2437  positivelivingnorth.org

bPOSITIVE LIVING NORTH WEST

3862F Broadway Avenue Smithers, BC V0J 2N0  250.877.0042 or 1.866.877.0042  plnw.org P5SITIVE LIVING | 21 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020

bPURPOSE SOCIETY FOR YOUTH & FAMILIES 40 Begbie Street New Westminster, BC V3M 3L9  604.526.2522  info@purposesociety.org  purposesociety.org

bREL8 OKANAGAN

P.O. Box 20224, Kelowna BC V1Y 9H2  250-575-4001  rel8.okanagan@gmail.com  www.rel8okanagan.com

bRED ROAD HIV/AIDS NETWORK

61-1959 Marine Drive North Vancouver, BC V7P 3G1  778.340.3388  info@red-road.org  red-road.org

bVANCOUVER NATIVE HEALTH SOCIETY 449 East Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V6A 1P5  604.254.9949  vnhs@shawbiz.ca  vnhs.net

bVANCOUVER ISLAND PERSONS

LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS SOCIETY 1139 Yates Street Victoria, BC V8V 3N2  250.382.7927 or 1.877.382.7927  support@vpwas.com  vpwas.com

bWINGS HOUSING SOCIETY 12–1041 Comox Street Vancouver, BC V6E 1K1  604.899.5405  wingshousing@shaw.ca  wingshousing.org

bYOUTHCO

205–568 Seymour Street Vancouver, BC V6B 3J5  604.688 1441 or 1.855.968.8426  info@youthco.org  youthco.org

contact peer navigation services

đ&#x;“ž 604.893.2287

⌂4

th

Floor • 1101 Seymou r St • Vancouver • BC V6B 0R1

Last Blast Groundbreaking Canadian HIV scientist (and guinea pig) dies

By Trenton Straube

C

©pirweb.org

anadian-born microbiologist Frank Plummer, MD, a leading researcher in HIV, SARS, Ebola and H1N1 flu, died while in Kenya for a celebration honoring his past research in the African country. He was 67 and reportedly died of a heart attack, according to BBC.com.

Plummer received many awards for his groundbreaking HIV work. More recently, he had made headlines for undergoing an experimental surgery involving brain implants to treat his alcohol use disorder.

At the start of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s, little was understood about the virus. One of Plummer’s important findings was that HIV could be transmitted between mothers and babies through breast milk.

A faculty member of the University of Manitoba, he conducted research in Nairobi, Kenya, where the HIV rate was unusually high.

While studying sex workers there—notably a handful of women who were repeatedly exposed to HIV but never contracted the virus—Plummer realized that some of the women had “sleepy” immune systems that failed to recognize and then attack HIV. As a result, the virus didn’t take hold and infect them.

Plummer’s work led to new ways to approach treatment and potential vaccines. In 2016, he received the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award, nicknamed the “baby Nobel,” for his HIV research.

His accomplishments were not confined to HIV. He also worked on creating a vaccine for Ebola and on tackling the SARS coronavirus. (You should probably be warned that, due to Plummer’s work with coronaviruses, online conspiracy theories attempt to connect him with the new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan and go so far as to question whether he was murdered.)

BBC.com profiled Plummer in January 2020 for a story about his struggles with alcohol abuse, a problem that developed as a result of his attempt to cope with stress and grief related to his HIV research by drinking.

He tried support groups and counseling, but they failed to stop him from using alcohol. He decided to become a guinea pig in the testing of a procedure that uses brain implants and electrodes to induce deep brain stimulation (DBS) in specific areas of the brain. DBS is described as a pacemaker for the brain, a way to rewire dysfunctional circuits.

In the article, Plummer reported improvements in his cravings and mood. In fact, thanks to the procedure, he had returned to Kenya to embark on more HIV research.

For more about the scientist, read “Mourning the Loss of Dr. Francis Plummer” from the University of Manitoba, as well as “Remembering Dr. Frank Plummer” from journalist and development researcher Joan Baxter. 5 This article originally appeared online at www.Poz.com and appears here in slightly edited form.

P5SITIVE LIVING | 23 | MARCH •• APRIL 2020