Aboriginal HIV Rates on Rise in Saskatoon area

Aboriginal HIV Rates on Rise in Saskatoon area

Friday, April 09, 2010 at 13:41

Rates of HIV are rising in the Aboriginal population in the Saskatoon Health Region, particularly amongst Aboriginal women.

Sixty-nine per cent of the new cases over about the last five years were Aboriginal people.

Of all the women who contracted HIV in that same period, 80 per cent of them were Aboriginal women.

The health region’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Cory Neudorf, says these numbers indicate something needs to be done because 15 years ago, there were almost no cases of HIV in the Aboriginal population.

Neudorf says part of the reason for the rise is there has been a shift in where HIV is found.

It used to be primarily homosexual men contracting the disease, but now it’s moved to intravenous drug users, of which a greater proportion is Aboriginal.