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Navigating HIV in university

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

Concordia to offer free rapid HIV testing pop-ups and film screening

In a country where it is a crime not to disclose that you have HIV before having sex, it’s no wonder having an STI comes with so much stigma.

Canadians who are HIV positive can face criminal prosecution for reasons like forgetting to use a condom or failing to alert their sexual partner of their illness before engaging in sexual activity. These people can be charged with aggravated sexual assault, which carries a mandatory designation as a sex offender and a maximum penalty of life in prison.

While these laws are in place for the sake of public health, they might deter people from getting tested. If you don’t get tested, then you can claim ignorance. If you aren’t absolutely certain you have HIV, you can’t be held legally responsible—right?

Unfortunately, this is the worst time in recent history to practice non-disclosure and unsafe sex. According to the Community AIDS Treatment Information Exchange (CATIE), the prevalence of HIV in Canada is increasing and has been since the late 90s. In 2014, an estimated 75,500 Canadians were living with HIV. This number represents an increase of 6,700 people, or 9.7 per cent, since 2011.

CATIE’s website states that more than one in five people living with HIV are unaware that they have the disease. This is extremely dangerous because HIV is a virus that anyone can contract, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. The illness is most often contracted through sexual contact or needle use. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bodily fluids—such as blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid, rectal fluids, vaginal fluids and breast milk—from a person who has HIV can transmit the virus to someone when they come in contact with mucous membranes (including the rectum, vagina, penis and mouth), damaged tissue or the bloodstream in any way.

In a university setting, where many young adults begin to experiment with sex and drugs—and sometimes both, together—students may be putting themselves at a higher risk of infection as a result of limited or no condom use. Luckily, resources to increase sexual education, STI prevention and knowledge about treatment options are available to students now more than ever—you just have to know where to look.

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth

If you think you have an STI

If you’re a Concordia student and you’re worried you might have an STI, you can book an appointment for STI testing Monday through Friday at Concordia’s Health Services on either campus. If you’re experiencing symptoms, you book an appointment with a Health Services physician. If you don’t have symptoms, you can see one of the nurses. There are also a variety of other places around the city where you can get tested for STIs, including CLSCs, Head & Hands and a number of clinics in the Gay Village.

It will take approximately 10 to 14 days for Concordia’s Health Services to receive your test results. You must come to the clinic in person to get them, either through the walk-in clinic or by appointment, where a nurse will explain your results to you and refer you to the appropriate treatment options, if necessary.

The Concordia website warns that it is the patient’s responsibility to follow up after an STI test, noting that students should “never assume that ‘no news is good news.’”

Even if you are convinced you don’t have an STI, testing is recommended for everyone who is sexually active. Many infections show no symptoms, so Concordia’s health professionals recommend students get an STI screening done every six months to a year.

If you’re at high risk for HIV

If you’re planning on having sex with someone who may have an STI, use a condom. Using condoms properly and regularly is the only form of contraception that also reduces the risk of getting or transmitting an STI.

For students at a higher risk of contracting HIV from a partner or through injection drug use, Concordia can also supply you with pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP is a preventative medication that people with a very high risk for contracting HIV can take regularly to lower their chances of getting infected. According to HIV.gov, prescription guidelines recommend that PrEP be considered mainly for people who are HIV negative and in an ongoing sexual relationship with an HIV-positive partner.

PrEP can only be prescribed by a healthcare provider. Concordia students can book an appointment with a Health Services physician to discuss whether or not it is the right HIV prevention strategy for them.

Without health insurance (public or private), the monthly cost of PrEP can be up to $995, according to Rézo Santé, an organization that provides gay and bisexual men with sexual, mental, social and physical health information. However, if you are covered by the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ), PrEP is covered under your plan. However, unless you have received an exemption, there would still be a monthly fee (as of 2015) of up to $83.33.

Montreal pharmacist Maciek Zarzycki told The Concordian that, while PrEP is effective for preventing HIV, it might not be the most cost-effective prevention method.

“It is significantly more cost-effective to use condoms,” Zarzycki said. “For PrEp, you need a prescription from your doctor, as well as a form filled out by your doctor that would approve you to be covered by insurance.” He also noted that PrEP can have several adverse side effects, such as a negative impact on liver health and cholesterol levels.

“Considering the side effects and the cost, it is not the best solution,” said Zarzycki. “Condoms are just as effective in HIV prevention, are significantly less expensive and do not give you any side effects.”

HIV resources at Concordia

Concordia’s HIV/AIDS Project’s mission is to provide a permanent space for dialogue and research on HIV/AIDS and to support students who might be the next generation of HIV/AIDS researchers, activists and teachers. They offer community lectures, courses and internships for students. Their next event will be a film screening of Memories of a Penitent Heart, a documentary that “explores the relationship between memory, stigma and the AIDS crisis,” at 7 p.m. on Feb. 15 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, Cecilia Aldarondo.

Concordia Health Services and the Concordia Student Union (CSU) will be offering a free, three-day, rapid HIV testing clinic this month. Testing at the pop-ups will be confidential, and the whole process will take only 20 minutes. Patients will simply be required to fill out a health questionnaire and briefly meet with a nurse to review the form. After the nurse collects a few drops of the patient’s blood by pricking their finger, they will receive their results about a minute later and have a post-test discussion with the nurse.

The free, rapid HIV testing clinics will take place downtown at the CSU in room H-711 on Feb. 13 and 14, and at the Loyola Hive on the second floor of the Student Centre building on Feb. 15, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

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Student Life

Check yourself before you wreck yourself

Graphic by Florence Yee

Concordia’s Health Services hosts a workshop on women’s common health concerns

Vaginal health, sexually-transmitted infections and breast health were some of the things addressed during Concordia’s Health Services workshop on women’s health.  The workshop, which was held in the conference room of the Health Services department on Jan. 25, addressed many common health concerns for women.

Louise Carline, a nurse at Health Services, and Gaby Szabo, a health promotion specialist, led the discussion.

During the workshop, Carline and Szabo focused largely on vaginal health. Carline stressed that Pap tests are crucial.  “[Pap tests] are important because they reduce your chances of cervical cancer by 70 per cent,” said Carline.

She described the examination process, where a doctor inserts a speculum—a plastic or metal tool used to dilate body orifices—into the vagina to evaluate the cervix.

Doctors recommend women have their first Pap test when they become sexually active, Carline said. She said the test should be done annually.

“A Pap test should be done mid-cycle, and you should avoid intercourse 24 hours before the test,” Carline said.

She also recommended that women, as well as men, get vaccinated against the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is the most common sexually transmitted infection. Concordia’s Health Services offers the Gardasil vaccine. The vaccine is covered by Concordia health insurance for Quebec residents.  However, the cost is not covered by government insurance for international students.

Szabo also stressed the importance of getting tested for sexually transmitted infections. “70 per cent of women and men will experience a sexually-transmitted infection at some point in their life,” Szabo said. “If you are sexually active, the recommendation is to get tested every six to 12 months.”

Women are also prone to getting yeast infections and urinary tract infections. Carline said it is estimated that women will have at least one yeast infection in their lifetime.

“[A yeast infection] is caused by a fungal infection brought on by antibiotics, stress, hormones or too much sugar in your diet,” said Carline. She added that, if a woman notices any symptoms, including itchiness or any vaginal discharge, she should see a nurse right away.

Urinary tract infections are also common among women, said Carline. They are caused by “bacteria that creeps up into your bladder which causes pain during urination,” she said.

A common symptom of this kind of infection is the presence of blood in urine. One important way of preventing the infection, Carline said, is to urinate after sexual intercourse. “By urination, you are eliminating that bacteria that can creep up during sexual contact,” she said.

As for menstrual cramps, Carline advised women to be active and eat healthy.

Szabo also discussed the importance of taking contraception seriously. In Canada, half of the pregnancies that occur are unplanned, she said. Intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs) are popular among young women, Carline said, adding that emergency contraception—Plan B—is also available for women, but is intended for emergencies only. Plan B is most effective within the first 72 hours after unprotected intercourse, Carline said.

The specialists also discussed breast health. Szabo said regular breast self-examinations are no longer recommended because, often, women only detect lumps when they are already fairly large

Concordia students can have their breasts checked at Concordia Health Services when they come in for a Pap test.

For more information, students can drop by Concordia’s the Health Services department on the second floor of the GM Building, or visit their website.

Categories
Student Life

Let’s Talk About Sex

Don’t have unprotected sex, or you will get chlamydia, and die

As we get ready for exams and look beyond at the good times to be had this winter break, many of you out there will be looking to take full advantage of the opportunities you get. For those of you looking for a new “resolution” for the new year, or just looking to have a little casual fun, I’d like to remind you to please—PLEASE—remember to use proper protection.

This goes for everyone of course, but today I want to talk to my fellow members of the LGBTQ community. While we are no longer in the age of the AIDS epidemic, there is still reason to be careful. Earlier this year, experts in the UK met to discuss the “crisis for gay men” represented by a massive increase in the rates of STIs.

In the U.S., men who have sex with men are 17 times more likely to develop anal cancer (which can be caused by HPV, the most common STI in the country) according to the CDC. In Canada, reported cases of chlamydia rose 72 per cent between 2001 and 2010 while reported cases of syphilis increased a whopping 456.7 per cent.

Experts warn us that the new generation of the LGBTQ community didn’t live through the AIDS epidemic of the ‘80s and that they expect a second wave of these diseases to hit men who have sex with men (MSM), according to a 2012 article in TIME.

Safe sex has been a very prominent part of queer culture (you can just pop in the Queer Concordia office to see all the resources available to prove it), especially because of the AIDS epidemic. The LGBTQ community has already been ravaged by HIV, AIDS, and STIs, and I know we don’t want to go through any of it again.

Why is it that despite the increasing resources and education on this topic, we’re heading in the wrong direction?

Some people say the education isn’t comprehensive enough, and I totally agree—sex education needs to be more inclusive to the LGBTQ community. However, I’ve heard from someone who has worked at an STD who says the most common cases that she sees are from individuals who were in a relationship where one partner had sex with someone else without informing the other and brought a STI into the relationship.

All this in mind, whether it’s a casual hookup or a long-term relationship, take the necessary precautions to protect yourselves. Let’s start this new year off with a bang.

Categories
Student Life

Scares, stigmas and STIs

VICTORIA — STIs, or sexually transmitted infections, have been a feared and stigmatized topic since biblical times. In contemporary times, we see a prominent stigma surrounding these infections. People are often labelled as “dirty” or “overly promiscuous” due to their affiliation with STIs. These people find themselves affected by a stigma that suggests all STIs are unmanageable problems that cause a person to be tainted for life. Though stigmas have been helped along by popular culture and old literature (for example, every Shakespeare comedy written), it is often taboos that prevent communication about STIs.
Jennifer Gibson, Island Sexual Health educator, teaches the importance of communication in curbing the spread of STIs as well as the stigmas behind them.
“In my experience as a sexual health educator, when sexually transmitted infections are being passed between partners, it often is because of the lack of communication that’s happened and it’s not [the intention] to harm someone; it’s that they haven’t been able to talk about it or they have no idea they actually have it,” says Gibson.
According to Gibson, the age-old preconceived notion that promiscuity is the recipe for disease isn’t necessarily true.
“People think that people who have multiple sexual partners have [an increased likelihood] of having a sexually transmitted infection than people who don’t. Theoretically, they have more opportunity for exposure, but they may not [actually] be getting exposed to sexually transmitted infections,” she explains.
One might say that the obvious way to avoid the spread of STIs is by frequent testing. Gibson recommends that people get checked at least once every three to six months or before every new partner depending on your frequency. However, getting checked isn’t always foolproof.
“Not all clinics offer the same standard testing. Often people go in for testing but they may not be told — or they may not ask — what they’ve been tested for. They then make assumptions that they’ve been tested for everything, when in fact it’s generally just those five that constitute a full STI screen [chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis, syphilis and HIV].”
In some cases, according to Gibson, clinics might not even test for all of these; leaving syphilis out, for example. As uncommon as syphilis might be in comparison with say, chlamydia, lack of testing for the infection does reveal a basic flaw in the system.
Even the evolution of the naming of these infections, from “sexually transmitted diseases” to “sexually transmitted infections” as they are now called, shows a basic reason of why they are so widespread.
“We now refer to them as STIs because it refers to things that are asymptomatic,” says Gibson.
This means that just because everything seems in working order does not necessarily mean that they are. Many STIs can go undetected without testing. This does not mean the infections are untreatable, however.
“I think that’s where your stigma comes in. It’s that idea that they are these long-term major issues for people’s health, which they can be, but they also can be very manageable if people are given proper care and testing,” says Gibson.
Yet while something like chlamydia is easier to treat than a headache, the stigma persists. However, by getting checked often, asking questions and staying informed about your sexual health, as Gibson teaches, the spread of STIs and the stigma that goes along with them will begin to subside.
As Gibson puts it, “the more we [get checked] the less opportunity for stigma is there because really it shouldn’t be any different than taking care of any other part of your body.”

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