Category: PAN News and Events

Got a Minute for Hepatitis C?

    Do you have lived experience of hepatitis C and live in BC? Your thoughts, feelings, and opinions will help build the future leadership training program: Click here to complete the Hepatitis C Leadership Project survey for people with lived experience   Are you part of a community-based organization, public health agency, health authority,… Read more »

HIV Self-Testing Approved in Canada!

Exciting news! Health Canada has provided final approval of Canada’s first HIV self-test on November 3, 2020. You can read key messages related to this announcement from REACH Nexus here.   This announcement marks a critical step to ending the HIV epidemic in Canada. HIV self-testing is expected to provide greater access to testing as Canadians will now be able to self-administer the HIV test on their own and where they feel most comfortable. This is… Read more »

Updated! Click here to view on-demand. Date: Wednesday December 2, 2020 Time: 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM Pacific time     Registration is open for our next virtual event*. We are pleased to be working in collaboration with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) to bring you a day-long virtual event featuring community… Read more »

  The People with Lived Experiences’ Strengths in the Face of Stigma project (linked to the BC People Living with HIV Stigma Index project) is looking for two community members from British Columbia to join the research team as Peer Research Associates. Are you someone with lived and living experience of HIV? Are you passionate… Read more »

Substance Use News: October 2020

Substance Use News provides a snapshot of news and resources for those working in harm reduction. We share pieces on the social, medical and political responses to the opioid crisis, from advocacy to welcome change. With the added layer of the coronoavirus/COVID-19 public health constraints, those working in harm reduction have heightened concerns about how… Read more »

Charting the Map: a reference for peer navigators

Just as awareness and urgency towards BC’s target for elimination of hepatitis C is growing, so is the base of education resources to support community efforts. A great example is the BC Hepatitis Network (formerly the Pacific Hepatitis C Network) reference guide for peer navigators called ‘Charting the Map’. Relevant and timely, the purpose of… Read more »

New testing technologies for different sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBIs) are being developed and introduced for wide use across the country. Health Canada is expected to provide final approval for the distribution of HIV self-testing kits in the Fall of 2020. HIV self-testing will enable people to collect their own samples and interpret their… Read more »

2020 World AIDS Day & Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week

  Amid the public health crises of COVID-19 and overdose deaths, plus a heightened awareness of systemic racism that plays out in healthcare and other services, Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week (December 1-5) and World AIDS Day (December 1) are undoubtedly going to look different this year. We welcome hearing what you and your communities are… Read more »

October 5, 2020 arrived with the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Medicine being jointly awarded to three scientists for their 1989 discovery of the hepatitis C virus. The scientific work of Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice answered a significant question: since hepatitis A and B had already been discovered and… Read more »

2019-20 Year in Review: Training and Leadership

The Year in Review   PAN’s Training and Leadership department offers in-person training events, virtual knowledge sharing and capacity building events; and a wealth of continuously updated resources via our website.  As in years past, we have presented a range of in-person events. However, with the emergence of COVID-19, we had to reshape the events… Read more »

2019-20 Year in Review: Community-Based Research

The Year in Review This year has been a busy one for the Community-Based Research (CBR) Department at PAN! We currently support three signature CBR projects – the BC People Living with HIV Stigma Index, Making it Work, and Positive Living, Positive Homes. We also support capacity-building relating to CBR with our members and allies… Read more »

2019-20 Year in Review: Collective Impact Network

The Year in Review   In the last year, through the omnipresent and work-altering impacts of COVID-19, PAN has continued to steer the ‘coordinated and effective community-based response to HIV and hepatitis C in our province’, the stated goal of the Collective Impact Network (CIN). An added uncertainty was that all the community contracts with… Read more »