For the first time, Saskatchewan hosted a province-wide HIV testing event Tuesday.
Community-based organizations and health regions tested for HIV.
The Saskatoon Health Region held testing events and activities across the city. Deputy Health Officer Julie Kryzanowski said about one in five people infected with HIV don’t know their status.
“We want to encourage everyone to know their status and the reason for that is the sooner people know their status, the sooner people can get started on treatment,” she said. “That produces better outcomes and it also reduces the risk of them transmitting HIV to other people.”
Saskatchewan’s HIV rate is about twice the national average. The Saskatoon Health Region says it has seen a spike in the last couple of years, but that may be due to more people getting tested. The health region has seen a 65 per cent increase in testing rates over the past five years. About three per cent of those tests came out positive.
That was the result for Tiana Egeland. The Saskatoon woman has been living with HIV for 20 years and said the virus has had a significant impact on her life. “I go up and down, I suffer a lot of depression because of my illness.”
Egeland now works with the Persons Living with AIDS Network of Saskatoon. She hope to give others the counselling and help they need “There should be more people that come forward and more people that come out and let people know that they’re sick, not people hiding it.”
Saskatchewan’s Minister of Health Jim Reiter agrees. He got tested Tuesday and hopes more people can have that same opportunity. “We’ve increased, we’ve tripled the amount of areas people can get tested from, we’ve included some CBOs, we’re going to continue to look at expanding that.” Reiter said.
The Saskatoon Health Region says a preliminary report shows about 170 new cases of HIV in 2016. Officials recommend anyone over the age of 13 get tested at least once every five years.
