Combination of social, health problems in province blamed for increase in number of HIV cases

HIV diagnosis rates in Manitoba continue to rise due to a combination of social and health problems, according to the director of a provincially co-ordinated initiative that provides care and treatment to people living with the virus.

In 2024, Manitoba’s diagnoses rate was 19.6 per 100,000 residents, while the national average was just over six per 100,000 residents. Last year, 291 Manitobans were newly diagnosed with HIV and 377 were referred to the Manitoba HIV Program.

Program director Kimberly Templeton said that the convergence of homelessness, mental-health concerns, substance use, socio-economic factors and COVID-19 is driving a syndemic of HIV and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections in the province.

She defined a syndemic as the clustering of social and health problems at a population level.

“I think the data just really shows how urgent and critical the situation is and that there’s a broader whole of government and multiple systems that need to be involved in the solution to what’s happening,” Templeton said.

She made the remarks during an online presentation to journalists in advance of World AIDS Day on Monday.

The number of people newly diagnosed with HIV and referred to the Manitoba HIV Program increased annually from 2014 to 2024, Templeton said, with a sharp increase in the last five years. There was a 230 per cent increase in the number of new diagnoses and referrals between 2020 and 2024.

Manitoba’s rate of new HIV diagnoses is second only to Saskatchewan in all of Canada. A recent publication from University of Manitoba researcher Zulma Rueda showed the rates of HIV in the two provinces are higher than all of the World Health Organization regions except for some areas in Africa.

These rates have significant implications for health outcomes of Manitobans diagnosed with HIV and the economic burden for the province is significant, Templeton said. She pointed to a December 2024 report from the Institute of Health Economics in Alberta that shows that the lifetime cost of a new HIV infection in Canada is estimated at $1.44 million per person.

Projections from Rueda and her colleagues show that in a status quo environment — meaning if no new initiatives, projects or interventions are introduced in Manitoba — there could be as many as 724 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2026, 884 in 2027 and up to 1,080 in 2028.

“Just to put that into perspective, there were several years prior to 2018 where the number of people that were newly diagnosed in the province was around 100,” Templeton said.

The Manitoba HIV Program continues to work with people living with HIV via its Program to Access Treatment for HIV and Support, said Mike Payne, executive director of Nine Circles Community Health Centre.

The goal of PATHS is to provide wrap-around care with psychosocial supports to people living with HIV; offer and link to Indigenous-led and culturally safe care; support people living with HIV to access and adhere to HIV treatment medication; and support people living with HIV to transition to long term primary care services.

The Manitoba HIV Program supports and provides specialized care and treatment for more than 2,500 people in the province who are living with HIV, according to the program’s website.

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca