Nova Scotia expanding STI home testing to include HIV screening
The STI Care Now initiative has been helping Nova Scotians get tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea since last summer.
Since then, thousands of kits have been mailed out. Those kits contain everything from instructions to swabs.
And it seems to be working.
'Out of those 3,000 kits, there were 120 positives,' said Dr. Todd Hatchette, STI Care Now Medical Director. 'We are reaching people. We are finding STIs and we are treating those individuals.'
Get weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
Nova Scotia Health's decision to expand the program to include HIV screening is being done in partnership with the Health Equity Alliance of Nova Scotia.
The alliance's executive director, Chris Aucoin, says there have been more cases of the virus over the last year and the at-home screening will be vital in identifying who needs further testing.
Story continues below advertisement
'The point of care test we're using is a screening test. That person will then be linked in to get proper bloodwork to ensure we can prove whether they have HIV or not,' said Aucoin.
The alliance recommends anyone who is sexually active should get tested, and warns that infections are possible without symptoms.
A kit can be requested by filling out an online questionnaire through Nova Scotia Health's website or the Your Health NS app.
Aucoin applauds the inclusion of HIV screening and hopes the program will expand even further down the road.
'Sexual health testing in Nova Scotia capacity-wise has been abysmal for decades. It has been a real challenge,' said Aucoin.
'We want to add syphilis as well, but the point of care test that does that, we have to prove that it works in a home setting when an individual administers it themselves.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
No need to panic, but West Nile threat very real, Manitoba health expert says
Health experts say a confirmed case of West Nile Virus in Manitoba is connected to someone who travelled outside of the province, but that doesn't mean there won't be homegrown cases still to come this summer. 'We don't think it was actually acquired in Manitoba at this point, but we can probably expect that we're going to likely see some cases of human West Nile Virus this season,' Dr. Santina Lee told Global Winnipeg. 'We definitely do see fluctuations year to year, and there's just so many different factors related to that. A lot (relates) to the weather — it has to be the right temperature, whether there's been rain or not, wind … all of that factors in.' Lee, an officer of health with the province, said while reported cases of the virus in humans are on the decline in Manitoba, those numbers are likely inaccurate, as many who are infected with the virus don't show any symptoms. Story continues below advertisement 'The vast majority of people who get infected with West Nile Virus are asymptomatic — have no symptoms at all, have no idea,' she said. 'This will vary on a scale of really mild, minor symptoms — fever, maybe some aches and pains — to having headaches, or more on the severe end, brain infection, brain inflammation and other neurologic symptoms. 'You never know if you are going to be in that percentage of people only mildly symptomatic or not symptomatic at all … or you might be the person who becomes really severely sick with this, ends up in the ICU, and may or may not make it out of the ICU.' Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Lee said everyone who is infected has a different experience, and while she doesn't want to raise alarm bells about the potential for infection, there are simple ways Manitobans can keep safe during the rest of the summer, including wearing insect repellant, avoiding outdoor time between dawn and dusk when the mosquitoes are more active and wearing long sleeves and long pants, especially if you're going out at night. You can also make sure there's no standing water or other attractive situations for the mosquitoes to breed on your property. 'Avoiding and eliminating the types of environments the mosquitoes like to be in and breed … all of those can go a long way to reducing our risk for mosquito bites and specifically culex tarsalis.' Story continues below advertisement Entomologist Taz Stuart told Global Winnipeg an increase in the number of potentially West Nile-carrying insects has led to a second round of treatment in the Winkler area, following last week's emergency fogging. 'If (a culex tarsalis mosquito) comes out of overwintering and she had West Nile from last year, she will then transmit it into the bird population, and they feed on birds initially in the start of the season,' he said. 'And then as we go into June and into July, they start moving into the larger animals and then humans. And this is where the August long weekend was key — that's usually the highest transmission, and with Winkler and that area having such a high percentage of positive culex mosquitoes … the overall nuisance population is very, very low, so people don't think there's a problem, but tarsalis is a very sneaky biter.'
Global News
9 hours ago
- Global News
Ontario just shy of meeting target of four hours direct care for LTC residents
Ontario failed to meet its legislated target for getting long-term care residents an average of four hours a day of direct care by March of this year, the government concedes, though it came quite close. The Progressive Conservative government set the target aimed at boosting both the amount of direct care residents receive from nurses and personal support workers, as well as other health professionals such as physiotherapists, in a 2021 law. While the government met its interim targets in the following two years, starting at three hours of direct care, it did not reach the third-year or final targets, amid staffing challenges. In the last year, the average direct hours of nursing and PSW care in long-term care homes across the province was three hours and 49 minutes, or 95.5 per cent of that four-hour target, according to a report recently published by the Ministry of Long-Term Care, led by Minister Natalia Kusendova-Bashta. Story continues below advertisement The province will continue trying to increase the amount of direct care residents receive, the government wrote in its report. 'This includes addressing the challenges that affect the government's ability to recruit and retain qualified care staff at a pace that keeps up with the need of the province's aging population,' the report said. 'These challenges are further compounded by the construction of a record number of new and upgraded long-term care beds, an important government priority that will require even more staff to meet demand.' Ontario is aiming to get 30,000 net new long-term care beds built by 2028. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The head of the association representing Ontario's non-profit homes said ensuring an average of nearly four hours of daily direct care for residents is a great achievement. 'I think the fact that they almost reached the target is excellent news, because there's been a lot of challenges with health human resources in the health-care sector,' said Lisa Levin, CEO of AdvantAge Ontario. The programs the government has put in place to increase the numbers of nurses, PSWs and other health professionals — at a cost of $4.9 billion over four years, the government says — has been helping, Levin said. Where more work needs to be done to close that gap is likely in northern and rural regions, she said. Story continues below advertisement '(It's) where we're hearing from our members that they're having the most difficulty and are more reliant on temporary staff,' Levin said. The government identifies 'recruiting and retaining staff in some rural and remote communities' in the report as one of the challenges it needs to address to further increase direct hours of care. As well, it says another difficulty is 'competition for existing and new staff from primary care, home care and hospitals.' AdvantAge Ontario and a coalition of eight other community health organizations have been urging the government to equalize pay within the sector so that health workers don't leave long-term care, for example, to get better pay doing the same work in hospitals. Levin and others have also been pushing the government to raise wages for registered practical nurses in order to help recruit and retain them. Personal support workers were given a $3-per-hour wage increase during the pandemic, and while that was a good move, it has left the RPNs who supervise them paid the same or even less, Levin said. Liberal long-term care critic Tyler Watt said it's great that the government is working on recruitment and retention strategies, but it should focus more on the retention side. 'I'm supportive and happy that the hours of direct care are going up, but there's still a lot that needs to be done to surpass that goal,' he said. Story continues below advertisement 'We see a lot coming from the health minister and Premier (Doug) Ford about all these investments they're making into recruitment and training, again I applaud all of that … but they are severely lacking on any investments or initiatives to retain the current staff and expertise that are there.' In the 2021 law, Ontario also set a target of 36 minutes per day of care for residents by allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists and social workers, and that target was exceeded in all four years, the government report said, including reaching 45 minutes in the last year.
CBC
11 hours ago
- CBC
Nova Scotia's need-a-family-practice registry hiding full picture, NDP says
The health critic for Nova Scotia's NDP is calling for more data to be released on the province's primary-care provider waitlist. Nova Scotia Health used to release a detailed report showing how many people were added and removed from the list each month, as well as where they were located in the province. Now, the health authority only announces the monthly total. At a meeting at the legislature on Monday, interim CEO Karen Oldfield celebrated the progress they've made in the last year, bringing the list down by nearly half. It now sits at 87,879 Nova Scotians who need a physician or nurse practitioner. "On the one hand, I'm ecstatic because the work that we're doing is working," she said. "On the other hand … we have a lot of work yet to do." When pressed by the NDP's Rod Wilson, Oldfield said that 24,990 names have been added to the waitlist since January. Wilson says they're manipulating the data. A release from the health authority in July said 1,576 people had been attached to a new provider. What it left out was that 5,001 people were added to the list, a number Oldfield revealed in the meeting at the legislature. "We just want the full disclosure," Wilson said after the meeting. "It's not a big ask for people to know how many in my community, what's the government's project plan and when might I get to a primary-care provider?" Part of the reason why the list is going down is the verification process. Nova Scotia Health is calling everyone on the list to make sure they haven't moved away or found a provider on their own. Oldfield said the health authority still has to verify about 27,000 names and she expects that work to be completed in the fall. But she won't commit to releasing more detailed reports at that time. "Once we figure out where we are and what we're looking at going forward, we can make some determinations about what's the right thing for Nova Scotia and for the Department of Health and Wellness." Oldfield said it would be impossible to eliminate the list altogether, because people are always moving and practitioners are always retiring, but her goal is to match people to clinics as much as possible. She said the health authority knows there are people in need of a family doctor who aren't on the list, and is encouraging them to contact 811. "We can't help them if we don't know."
