Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jul 2015
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Cheryl Chan
Page: 8

HIV/AIDS SCIENTIST GETS $1.5M TO STUDY ADDICTION

A Canadian scientist has been awarded a $1.5-million-US research 
grant for a new five-year project to examine ways of preventing 
injection drug use and the spread of addiction.

Dan Werb, a research scientist at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in 
HIV/AIDS, is one of four inaugural recipients of the prestigious 
Avenir Award from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. The 
award is given to new scientists working on cutting-edge research 
involving substance use and HIV/AIDS.

Werb will use the funding for a project called PRIMER, Preventing 
Injecting by Modifying Existing Responses, which will test new ways 
of preventing injection drug use by harnessing existing health 
interventions such as supervised injection sites and methadone 
maintenance therapy to see if engaging more drug users in such 
harm-reduction programs will lead to fewer users and lower rates of addiction.

"For too long, the goals of preventing addiction have seemed at odds 
with efforts to treat this condition," said Werb in a statement 
issued by the Toronto-based International Centre for Science in Drug 
Policy (ICSDP), where Werb is executive director.

"It is my hope that over the coming years we will demonstrate 
treating the harms of addiction is, in fact, not only compatible with 
prevention aims but is actually an effective way of preventing the 
spread of addiction across populations."

The five-year study will be conducted in six cities including 
Vancouver, San Diego, Tijuana, Mexico, and Paris, Marseille and 
Bordeaux in France.

PRIMER is hailed as the first project to extend the treatment as 
prevention or (TasP )model pioneered at the B.C. Centre for 
Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver.

"I am thrilled Dr. Werb will be extending the work that we have 
started with TasP," said Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. 
centre. "We have demonstrated HIV epidemics can be controlled by 
expanding immediate and universal treatment coverage to those infected."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom