Women's Studies 2163A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Aids, Opioid Overdose, Needle Exchange Programme
2 May 2018
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Lecture 5 – The Basics of HIV
- Regional HIV/AIDS connection: work for people, are affected by, have increased risk for HIV
o Family members, friends, community members that feel impacted
- LOCATIONS
o RHAC
▪ No big sign – stigma, confidentially, conformability of clients, create safe space
▪ 2 entrances
o John Gordon Home
▪ 80-90s, people were dying of aids
• Hospice for people that are dying of aids – there was a lack of care,
consideration, and respect for people impacted by AIDS
• Community came together to open this home to create space for people hat
were impacted by AIDS to die with dignity
▪ Shifted over the years – medical advances, people in care or treatment are not dying
of AIDS
• HIV does not have to progress to that stage
• People that are living with HIV are increased risk for health issues: mental
health, etc.
• In light of opioid crisis, a lot of people living with HIV may also be affected
by Hep C
o BOTH Infections by sharing injection
o People usually have both
▪ Transitional housing facility
• May experience homelessness, disclosure from their families
• Need help getting set up in stable housing
- Departments
o Education
▪ Priority populations – demographics that have higher rates of HIV
• For variety of reasons, specific communities are disproportionally affected
▪ Racism, stigma, poverty - changes the way they are affected
▪ Any known to have higher risk of HIV – there is a worker focused in on that
population
o Community relations
▪ Community members to facilitate relationship
▪ Awareness, fundraisers
o Administration
o HIV support services
▪ Case management work
▪ Case support workers – related to housing, income, connecting to doctors
• Client based, client directed work
o Counterpoint Harm reduction services + Hep C Team + TOPS
▪ Counterpoint – needle syringe exchange program
▪ Harm reduction – people can make decisions that are harmful
• People using drugs are at an increased risk of overdose
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• Drug use is criminalized but it is often linked to various other factors –
trauma, poverty, self suit
▪ 70% of new HIV diagnosis is among people who inject drugs
• Necessary to provide clean equipment to reduce the HIV
• People are already using – they help these people
• Do not provide services with judgement – safe space
o John Gordon Home
- Supplies for snorting, smoking, etc.
o Hep C can live on a bill (up to 21 days) – transferred day to day
o A lot of opioid overdose – naloxone reduces the effect of this (temporary) – call 911 after
▪ If you call 911 because someone is overdosing – can’t be charged with drug charges
= GOOD SAMARITIN LAW
- Overdose prevention site
o Inject on site under supervision of RN
Harm Reduction
- Harm reduction is anything that reduces the risk of injury whether or not the individual is able to
abstain from the risky behaviour
- Harm reduction is any program or policy designed to reduce drug-related harm without requiring
the cessation of drug use
Evidence Based Harm Reduction Model Strategies
- Low threshold support services
o Anonymous service
o Needle syringe/safer inhalation programs
o Overdose prevention/ Naloxone
o Housing First Models
o Hepatitis C Treatment
o Methadone maintenance treatment
o Supervised consumption facilities / Wet Shelter
o Prescribed heroin treatment
o Proactive law enforcement/ Decriminalization
Supervised consumption services
- Supervised consumption facilities have 4 main goals
o 1. To reduce spread of infectious diseases (HIV and hepatitis C)
o 2. To reduce the number of drug overdose deaths
o 3. To bring people who inject drugs into contact with other health and social and treatment
services; and,
o 4. To reduce issues in the community such as drug use in public places, and discarded
needles
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find more resources at oneclass.com
What is HIV/AIDS?
- Note: they are not the same thing, therefore NOT interchangeable
- HIV = Human immunodeficiency virus
o Can ONLY affect human beings – can not come from animals or given to animals
o Does not live outside the human body
▪ Dies when it exits the human body – EXPOSED TO AIR = DIES
o No cure – lives in your body for the rest of your life
o Immunodeficiency - Attacks the immune system
▪ WBC fight off infection
▪ HIV attaches to WBC and imitates them – body does not recognize that this is
something that needs to be attacked
o Virus – does replicate itself
▪ Once it enters the human body, it cant go away
o Can acquire HIV virus
- AIDS = Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
o Collection of symptoms
o Can not catch AIDS
▪ Need to have HIV virus to progress to the AID stage
o High virus load = amount of virus that is in the blood (high, low, undetected)
▪ Undetected – can not transmit the HIV virus
• Can occur through the suppression of high virus load
• Does not progress to AIDS
• Can not detect the HIV in the blood
▪ Not everyone can achieve supressed viral load
o Secondary infection when the viral load is high – makes people vulnerable to infection, can
get sick – THIS IS WHEN IT CAN BECOMES AID
o If someone does not get diagnosed with HIV, but then they get really sick – AIDS, and then if
they get treatment they can no longer live with AIDS, will just have HIV
- NOTE: HIV is a virus. AIDS is a syndrome, considered to be a medical/clinical stage of HIV
Viral Load
- # of copies of HIV in the blood
- High = 100k
o Many copies of HIV virus in the blood
- Low=
o Few copies of HIV virus in the blood. Treatment can help reduce viral load
- Undetectable = 40-50
o So few copies of HIV virus in the blood that it can be hard to find using current tests
- Safer to have sex with someone who is undetectable than someone who is undiagnosed
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Regional hiv/aids connection: work for people, are affected by, have increased risk for hiv: family members, friends, community members that feel impacted. John gordon home: 80-90s, people were dying of aids, no big sign stigma, confidentially, conformability of clients, create safe space, hospice for people that are dying of aids there was a lack of care, If you call 911 because someone is overdosing can"t be charged with drug charges. Harm reduction is anything that reduces the risk of injury whether or not the individual is able to abstain from the risky behaviour. Harm reduction is any program or policy designed to reduce drug-related harm without requiring the cessation of drug use. Low threshold support services: anonymous service, needle syringe/safer inhalation programs, overdose prevention/ naloxone, housing first models, hepatitis c treatment, methadone maintenance treatment, supervised consumption facilities / wet shelter, prescribed heroin treatment, proactive law enforcement/ decriminalization. Supervised consumption facilities have 4 main goals: 1.
