Stigma to success: Vancouver hospital AIDS ward repurposed over lack of demand

[byline]

May 27 2014 04:03 AM

CP28525439 — British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, right, embraces Dr. Julio Montaner, director for the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, after announcing the dedicated AIDS ward at St. Paul\'s Hospital would no longer just treat patients with HIV/AIDS because of a lack of demand due to the success of the centre, during a news conference in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday May 27, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Original Publication Date: May 27, 2014 4:03AM

Publication Updated: January 8, 2025 11:06PM

VANCOUVER – A Vancouver hospital ward once so stigmatized it was only referred to by code name is shedding its past thanks to a steady reduction of AIDS cases.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark has announced “Ward 10C” at St. Paul’s Hospital will no longer be dedicated to the disease because it’s not needed.

She says the ward is being repurposed from a place where patients went expecting to die to a treatment centre for a chronic, manageable, long-term illness.

Clark credits the success to a made-in-B.C. treatment and prevention program and the pioneering work of the BC Centre for Excellent in HIV/AIDS.

United Nations under-secretary for UNAIDS Michel Sidibe (sid-eh-bay) says the ward’s transformation is a “defining moment” that should inspire global communities to start thinking about ending AIDS altogether.

There’s been a 90 per cent drop in AIDS cases in B.C. since 1995 and an 80 per cent decrease in HIV-related mortality between 1996 and 2012.

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