HIV/AIDS

Dear Editor: 

I read with great interest the SGN story, BC hospital shuts down AIDS ward for lack of patients (SGN, June 13) when I was recently in Seattle doing book research. 

A 15-year-old high school student has gotten a head start on her scientific career by developing an early-stage HIV infection test.

Simon Fraser University said the test designed by Nicole Ticea is “nearly as simple as a pregnancy test” and could be invaluable in remote parts of the world, particularly Africa.

The development earned Ticea, a student at York House independent school, first place in the B.C. Regional Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada.

Jeremy Nuttall Reports

Julie is expecting her first baby. With less than a month to go before becoming a mother, the South Shore resident is concerned with the usual things: baby names, comfortable sleeping positions and nursery colours. Julie is HIV-positive, and she and her husband are proof that the virus doesn’t have to end the dream of parenthood.

“I am not worried about my baby becoming infected,” she says over the phone, the smile evident in her voice. “I am just excited.”

A Canadian preschooler who doctors hoped was essentially cured of HIV experienced a swift resurgence of the virus after being taken off medication, an outcome researchers are calling a “cautionary tale” for scientists trying to wipe out the disease in its youngest sufferers.

The 3-year-old was one of five Canadian children that a team of pediatric HIV-AIDS researchers in this country identified after hearing the astonishing story of the Mississippi baby, an American girl, now 3, who appears to have been “functionally cured” of the virus that causes AIDS.

A group of infectious disease experts is pushing back against Canada's justice system, arguing that non-disclosure of HIV infection to a sexual partner should not be grounds for criminal prosecution.

In a consensus statement presented Friday at the Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research in St. John's, the six HIV experts said the latest scientific evidence shows the risk of sexually transmitting the virus varies from low to zero in many cases.