Senators' Statements

Honourable senators, do you know your status?

That is the theme of World HIV/AIDS Day, which will be observed on December 1. This year’s theme encourages everyone to check their HIV status.

Knowing one’s HIV status is crucial to combatting this disease since, at the end of 2016, approximately 14 per cent of the 63,110 people living with HIV in Canada did not know they were infected. Senators, six Canadians contract HIV every day.

In order to eradicate this epidemic by 2030, UNAIDS has launched the 90-90-90 campaign, in which Canada is participating.

The objective of this worldwide campaign is to ensure that by 2020, 90 per cent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90 per cent of all people with a diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.

I will admit that these are very ambitious targets, but we can and must meet them. I would like to remind senators that nearly 39 million people have died from this disease.

Thanks to medical breakthroughs, 91 per cent of people here in Canada who receive treatment achieve suppressed viral loads, meaning their viral load is reduced to an undetectable level.

Having said that, we learned recently that between January and September 2018 in my own province, New Brunswick, 16 new cases have been reported, and 11 of these 16 cases were in the same region: Fredericton and Oromocto. This number of new cases is double the expected level for a full year. It’s a sign that the fight is not yet over. The solution to that is education.

Modernized sex education programs that are adapted to the realities of today’s society enable us to better inform young people of the importance of getting tested for HIV and of leading a safe and healthy sexual lifestyle. They also allow us to educate youth about serophobia, which is the fear and aversion some people have towards people living with HIV.

Education also raises awareness of the discrimination and stigma that many people living with HIV/AIDS have to deal with every day, which make the burden they have to bear that much heavier.

Honourable colleagues, I wish to thank everyone involved in aggressively fighting this disease. They include doctors and researchers, as well as agencies and their staff who educate, support and advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS and the families who support them. I also want to thank the teachers in the schools who are proactive in talking about this important issue with their students.

Colleagues, I encourage us all to be proactive and to call upon our governments and communities to step up their efforts to ensure that everyone in this country knows their status, so Canada can meet its targets.

Thank you.