Bruce House: More than a house

False sense of security
Risk of infection real as ever

Rory MacDonald, Capital Xtra!, October 12, 2001

Despite all efforts to educate people about the risks associated with unsafe sex, infection rates for HIV are increasing.

Statistics from Health Canada show that since 1996 infection rates in the man-to-man sex category have increased by eight percent and that the HIV virus has mutated where standard treatments have no effect. We could see numbers rise even higher.

Jay Koornstra, Executive Director of Bruce House says at the end of 1999 there were an estimated 50,000 people living with HIV. Of those, 15,000 are unaware they are infected. Koornstra feels that numbers are increasing because attitudes have changed.

"Since 1996 there's been a turnaround. Not as many people are dying. There is a generation of people who have not had a close friend die in their arms. That, along with safer sex fatigue, are contributing factors." Koornstra adds there are actually people out there who think that a cure has been found, creating a sense of false security.

"For many, treatment has prolonged the progression of the disease and has given people many more years. Some, however, can't benefit at all." The side effects of the medications are sometimes more dangerous then the disease itself for some.

"They think that the introduction of protease inhibitors in 1996 has been a miracle, but people don't know how difficult it is to take the medication, how toxic it is and that it's also a lifetime regime," he says. "It's not like where you contract gonorrhea or syphilis where a shot in the butt is enough. The side effects of these toxic medications include body rashes, nausea, constant headaches and continual intestinal problems, and these are just the short term effects," he says. Long term effects include neurological disruption or organ failure.

Koornstra now fears the HIV virus mutating to the point where the three main avenues of treatment are no longer effective and a new front in the battle against HIV must be created. He adds that the medical community now has to attack the HIV problem on three levels, to find a vaccine, to continue to educate about safer sex and to improve upon the current treatments available for those infected.

At the end of 1999 there were approximately 2,000 people in Ottawa living with HIV. However Koornstra is concerned that these figures are not accurate and has been lobbying the city health department to release regular reports. "We need to know how to prepare ourselves for the future. We need to know what the current infection rates are so we can plan and know what we need to have in place," he says.

Bruce House operates both a 24-hour care support home and an apartment program and both programs now have extensive waiting lists. "In our 24-hour care program we very seldom see a bed remain empty for more than two days," he says. He adds that if numbers continue to rise it is going to become even more difficult to provide the much-needed services for those who become infected.