HIV infection rates in Manitoba have become some of the highest in Canada, leaving a longstanding community organization pressed amid an increase in demand for services.
Kim Templeton expects more than 300 Manitobans to be diagnosed with HIV this year, adding to the approximately 2,000 clients who receive care with the Manitoba HIV Program.
Templeton works with the Manitoba HIV Program at the non-profit and says diagnoses have increased significantly since 2018.
“Unfortunately what’s happening here in Manitoba is quite distinct from what’s happening in the rest of the country,” she said. “In Manitoba, we’re seeing women are really disproportionately impacted, particularly Indigenous women.”
A report from the Public Health Agency of Canada states Manitoba has one of the worst diagnosis rates in Canada, with 10.5 people per 100,000 diagnosed in 2021, second to Saskatchewan’s rate of 20.3 people per 100,000. The national diagnosis rate is 3.8.
There was a 52.0 per cent increase in the total number of people living with HIV in Manitoba between 2018 (N=111) and 2021 (N=169), the report says.
In 2021, the rate of HIV in Manitoba (12.2 HIV diagnoses/100,000 people) was three times higher than the rate of HIV in Canada in 2020 (4.0 HIV diagnoses/100,000 people).
The pandemic resulted in a decreased demand for, and ability to provide, services related to sexually transmitted and bloodborne infections, including HIV testing.
Since HIV was first identified in 1984, at least 35 million people have died from their infections.
Nine Circles was born from an amalgamation of organizations fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 2000s. The non-profit provides care and resources for new diagnoses and those living with the illness and cares for patients referred to the organization by doctors.
Unlike when the AIDS epidemic was at its height in the late 1980s and 1990s, the virus is no longer a death sentence as effective treatments to manage an infection have become widely available. However, risks of becoming infected are now commonly found outside sexual transmission.
Templeton said the diagnoses seen in Manitoba are a result of the homelessness crisis, the rise of people with mental health concerns, and a result of needle-sharing, but cases stemming from heterosexual sex are also popping up.
“We’re trying to understand why things are so different here in Manitoba and working towards some solutions, alongside our stakeholders, to change things,” she said.
The Pit Stop, an area within Nine Circle’s main facility on Broadway, has been bustling with activity as of late, says Kim Bailey, director of prevention, testing and wellness at Nine Circles.
The area which distributes harm reduction supplies is also actively helping in the fight against rising HIV infection rates, Bailey said, as Winnipeg’s overdose and drug poisoning crisis is seeing an increase in the need for naloxone, which is also paramount to preventing infections.
“When people come here and they get supplies for safer drug use this is a really, really helpful tool for prevention of HIV and hepatitis C,” Bailey said.