A study commissioned by Health and Welfare Canada and the Medical Research Council has recommended that both federal and provincial governments should distribute free condoms and syringes, and provide facilities for decontaminating needles, to those whose behaviour puts them at risk for AIDS.
The report, called AIDS: A Perspective for Canadians, was prepared by the Royal Society of Canada. It is said to be the first Canadian study to look at the medical, social and legal aspects of AIDS. Among the 34 volunteer contributors to the report are Mr. Justice Horace Krever of the Ontario Court of Appeal and Senator Loran Marsden, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto.
Among the 48 recommendations made by the society, a proposal to supply prisoners with condoms and needle-cleaning equipment (but not syringes) was immediately rejected by the Solicitor General. James Kelleher said that AIDS is not a big problem in prisons.
“We don’t permit drug use, nor do we permit homosexual activity in our prisons,” Mr. Kelleher said. “We have no intention of supplying or assisting prisoners in those endeavours.”
The report rejects the idea of mandatory testing for prospective immigrants to Canada and for pregnant women who may have been exposed to the virus. Nor does it approve of quarantine for anyone infected with AIDS. It does however, recommend that provincial legislation provide for health care workers to disclose the identity of AIDS carriers in certain situations. It says that people who may be in danger of infection from a person who is infected with AIDS should be told of the risk if the carrier is in “such mental, physical or emotional condition as to be dangerous to others.”
In addition, the report calls for compensation for those who have been infected with AIDS through contaminated blood transfusions or blood products.
As of April 25, there were 1,719 AIDS victims in Canada, of which 960 have died. It is estimated that 30,000 people are infected with the virus, although that figure could be as low as 10,000 or as high as 50,000. By 1992, it is estimated that between 6,000 and 11,000 people will have developed AIDS.
In 1987, the costs of AIDS care in Canada reached nearly $129 million. If current trends continue, that figure will rise to half a billion dollars a year by 1992. The average cost to the health care system today for a single AIDS patients from diagnosis to death is over $100,000 the report states.
It also calls for increased government spending in education and research to combat AIDS. It recommends spending $35 million annually on education (more than seven times current levels) and $80 million a year on research (more than twice current levels).
The report which cost $240,000 to produce, is now being reviewed by the National Advisory Committee on AIDS. This group will in turn present recommendations to Health Minister Jake Epp who is in the process of formulating a national policy on AIDS.
