What to know
- HIV rates in Canada rose 35 per cent in 2023, yet 76 per cent of people are unaware that cases are increasing.
- Advocates say that a lack of information and open conversation about HIV continues to fuel the rise, especially among marginalized communities.
- Experts and advocates are calling for more public education surrounding HIV to help reverse the trend.
HIV rates in Canada are rising, and while the majority of people in Canada are unaware, experts and advocates say that education is key to combating the issue.
Canadian rates of HIV increased by a staggering 35 per cent in 2023, while 76 per cent of people are unaware that cases are rising, data from the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research shows. And that lack of awareness is a huge problem.
While prevention tools like the medications PrEP and Doxy-PEP exist, conversations about HIV continue to be impacted by stigma, outdated perceptions from the height of the AIDS crisis, and gaps in sex education and public health messaging.
A Toronto-based advocate and a local hospital treating people with the virus say that integrating HIV education into schools, healthcare settings and public campaigns is critical to reversing current Canadian trends and meeting global goals to eradicate the virus.
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CASEY HOUSE: A HOSPITAL FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV
Located on Toronto’s Isabella St., Casey House is a hospital that has been providing specialized care for people living with or at risk of HIV since 1988. With an outpatient clinic that serves thousands of people annually, and an inpatient unit that offers 24/7 care, the hospital is a vital resource for Toronto.
Meanwhile, their inpatient unit provides a variety of other services, including for people receiving cancer treatment, wound care, or help managing their diabetes.
“The [HIV] pandemic and the crisis in the 80s in Toronto certainly hit the gay community most significantly,” Casey House CEO Joanne Simons told Queer & Now.
“The majority of folks that Casey House was seeing were palliative. It was a death sentence; from diagnosis to the point of death was a relatively short period of time, typically, for many under a year.”
On the other hand, as science has progressed, medications have been developed to both prevent the transmission of HI and to improve the quality of life for people living with the virus.
“The medications came out in the early 90s, and people certainly were still dying at Casey House in very high numbers. But as that medication over the next decade became much more effective, people started to live with the disease,” she explained, adding that the facility was originally a hospice, but became a hospital in 2016, as medical advancements allowed for patients to experience better outcomes.
STIGMA AS A BARRIER
Simons explained that many of the patients at Casey House also face intersectional issues in addition to HIV, including being unhoused and suffering from poor mental health or significant trauma. In these conditions, maintaining a medication regimen can become very difficult.
“If you don’t have a roof over your head, it’s very hard to store your medications, and so we do still see folks within the community that are palliative, on average, it’s about kind of 15 per cent of the inpatient unit we see,” she explained.
“So, while there is much to celebrate in terms of the evolution of the disease and survivability, certainly – for our population –that is not always true, given the other intersectional issues that they may be facing.”
Simons believes that Canada needs more public health messaging around HIV and how to prevent contracting the virus.
Additionally, she flagged Ontario’s closure of supervised consumption sites as an added problem.
“Those services have decreased, and we are hearing anecdotally from the community of people who use drugs that, as a result, they are starting to share needles again,” Simons shared. “From a public health perspective, that is very worrying, because it will mean that we will see an increase in the rates of HIV.”
The CEO explained that there are a lot of layers that go into the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS, especially as many of those conversations include sensitive topics like sex or drug use.
“Awareness [of the virus], and how to prevent HIV, are still not discussed openly and honestly, and we still do see rates of HIV increasing.”
The lack of awareness is especially true among newcomer communities coming from places where HIV is endemic, and cultural taboos around sex exist. To address this issue, the hospital has a clinic serving people with healthcare documents or insurance.
So, how do we address this stigma? Simons believes that education is key, and needs to happen through public health campaigns and curriculum in our public schools and medical schools.
In 2026, the hospital is launching a campaign that addresses homelessness, mental health and racism as components of stigma with HIV.
“None of us is just one thing, and it is, I think, hard to pull apart which stigma somebody is facing, especially for a population that is African, Caribbean and Black or Indigenous. People of Colour generally face huge racism and discrimination aside from their HIV.”
The United Nations has a plan to eradicate HIV by 2030, and the Casey House CEO says many countries that have invested in prevention and awareness are seeing decreasing numbers.
“It can be done, but there has to be significant focus, energy and investment within the communities, and certainly from our perspective, the ones that are being most affected are those who are most marginalized and vulnerable.”
SEXUAL HEALTHCARE: PrEP & Doxy-PEP
Influencer Jordan Shore shared that he’s not surprised that rates of HIV in Canada are rising.
Shore shared that he utilizes Freddie, a clinic that provides HIV-focused healthcare, offering services like free clinician consultations, delivery of medications for preventing HIV and STIs, and care for those who are HIV positive.
Two of those medications are PrEP and Doxy-PEOP. PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a pill taken once a day to help prevent HIV, while Doxy-PEP (Doxycycline Post-Exposure Prophylaxis) boosts protection against some bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) when taken after condomless sex.
Despite preventative medication being relatively easy to access in Toronto, Shore says he is one of the only people in his friend group using the medications.
“It’s scary to a lot of people, because it is something that you need to take every day. But I think we are so blessed to be advanced enough scientifically that we can take this medication to prevent the contraction of HIV, which is still so serious and still present,” Shore told Queer & Now.
He explained that it’s incredibly important to know how the virus is transmitted, and that there are services available to help prevent this. However, he believes PrEP often gets a bad rep and is associated with frequent casual sex.
“I do think it should be associated with the opposite. I think it should be associated with safety and precaution, which then allows you to have peace of mind when you’re sleeping with someone else,” he explained.
For him, this information should be incorporated into school sex-ed programs to address knowledge gaps and allow a safe space where people can talk about sex without shame.
“Because I think sometimes having to go seek out knowledge brings shame, and some people feel shameful, whether they’re experimenting, or they’re new to having sex, or not, I think people feel like a shame because they think it’s associated with sleeping around,” Shore explained.
In fact, being able to talk about sex without shame is critical.
“I think it’s so important to be able to talk about sex and feel like it’s a part of our lives and something that shouldn’t be associated with shame, whether you’re having it or not,” the influencer explained.
“If we can break down that [stigma] a little more and show people that it’s okay to be sexually active, it’s okay to talk about it, and to ask questions, then I feel like that’s how we can bring along more safety and preventative measures. Because knowledge is power.
While Freddie is a convenient service for those across much of the country, people in Toronto can also access The Village Pharmacy PrEP Clinic, which offers both walk-in and virtual appointments, as well as on-site HIV testing.
