Mr. Speaker, today is World AIDS Day. AIDS is the world's leading infectious disease killer. The WHO reports 39 million deaths since 1981.
Today, 35 million people live with HIV, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. Of those, 24.7 million live in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Some 3.2 million with AIDS are children under 15.
Despite advances in science and significant efforts by the global health community, most people with or at risk for HIV have no access to prevention, care or treatment. While progress has been made in preventing mother-to-child transmission, there is still no cure.
British Columbia plays an important role in the prevention and treatment of HIV-AIDS. The HAART program, available to every positive resident in B.C., has seen a drastic drop in the number of new infections annually. The world calls B.C.'s program “treatment as prevention”, since after the second dose, the virus is absent from the blood stream and cannot be passed on.
China, Brazil, the U.K. and Austria have adopted B.C.'s program, yet Canada's federal government has yet to acknowledge its existence.