BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

Police are warning drug users to be “extremely cautious” after seven people were reported to have overdosed on heroin Tuesday.

The suspected overdoses occurred in the Downtown Eastside, according to a news release from Sgt. Randy Fincham, a VPD spokesman.

The warning urged users to inject at Insite, where there are medical personnel on hand.

“If you are a drug user who has used and don’t feel well, seek medical attention or help immediately,” he said.

Fincham asked anyone who sees someone in medical distress to call 911.

Matthew Robinson Reports

Police in Vancouver are warning drug users to be extremely cautious after receiving seven reports of suspected heroin overdoses in the city's Downtown Eastside.

Sgt. Randy Fincham confirmed some of the overdoses took place at Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection site. But police are still advising injection drug users to use Insite because it has medical staff available to help in the event of an overdose.

A PAIR OF reports out today (June 3) outline health and legal arguments for a possible next step in the decriminalization of sex work in Canada.

The first, drafted by researchers at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BCCFE), examines the consequences for the health and safety of sex workers when antiprostitution laws are enforced against clients. The second, drafted by Pivot Legal Society and Sex Workers United Against Violence, provides a legal analysis of those implications, and concludes that laws targeting clients “likely” violate the rights of sex workers.

A B.C. study suggests criminalizing johns endangers sex workers and fails to eradicate the demand for paid sex.

Thirty-one Vancouver sex workers were interviewed for the study, published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Open, following the Vancouver Police Department’s implementation of a new policy in January, 2013, that cracked down on clients instead of sex workers. This approach, known as the Nordic model, is expected to underpin the federal government’s new bill on prostitution laws, which should be introduced this week.

Ryan McNeil, an SFU postdoctoral researcher, hopes health care providers and policy makers dig deep into a new book he has co-authored to improve health care for Canada’s approximately 200,000 homeless people.

A first in Canada

Homelessness & Health in Canada, published by the University of Ottawa Press, is the first book in Canada to explore how social, structural and environmental factors shape the health of Canada’s homeless.

McNeil is a health scientist affiliated with the Urban Health Research Initiative at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

For Dr. Julio Montaner, this week's closure of the dedicated AIDS ward at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver carried double-edged symbolism.

The director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS helped shape the pioneering treatments that have cut AIDS cases so sharply that the ward is no longer necessary. But he remains frustrated that B.C.'s proven strategy, dubbed treatment as prevention, isn't being adopted elsewhere in Canada.

He blames Ottawa for failing to lead the fight against what he considers a national epidemic.

A lack of demand has the ward dedicated to HIV/AIDS treatment at St. Paul's Hospital closing. Dr. Evan Wood is with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Maxine Davis is the Executive Director of the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation.

Click here to listen to the interview

St. Paul’s Hospital has shut down its dedicated AIDS ward, saying they no longer have enough patients — and the end of AIDS is in sight.