Tackling the Killers: Has Preventing HIV/AIDS Provided a Key to Sustainable Healthcare?

Over the past 30 years, HIV/AIDS has been transformed from a certain death sentence into a manageable disease through sustained, lifelong treatment – thanks in large part to the work of Dr. Julio Montaner and his team at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE).

In 2006, Dr. Montaner built on his development of a new drug combination to prevent HIV from evolving into AIDS by introducing the innovative concept of Treatment as Prevention® or TasP®. This strategy reaches out and engages with individuals living with HIV earlier, to provide sustained treatment and care. While the concept of TasP® was initially regarded as controversial, it has led to a stunning reduction of new HIV and AIDS cases in British Columbia. Could this success in medical innovation be the key to a sustainable healthcare system?

As part of the UBC University Killam Professor Lecture Series, we invite you to join Dr. Montaner in an engaging discussion on how TasP® could be instrumental in creating a more sustainable healthcare system by applying its principles to communicable diseases such as hepatitis C, and even socially communicable diseases like addiction.

A University Killam Professorship is the highest honour UBC can confer on a faculty member and recognizes exceptional teachers and researchers who are leaders in their fields.

This series is presented by UBC’s Office of the VP Research and Office of the VP Academic in partnership with the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and alumni UBC.