Canada: AIDS Still Kills, Guelph Walk Organizer Says

For the first time in 15 years, the Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life will be held in Guelph this year. The 3.5-kilometer walk seeks to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, as well as to support the work of the Masai Clinic. "The big issue is that people have assumed from items in various forms of media that there is a cure, and there is not," said Deanna Clatworthy, the clinic's coordinator and the walk's organizer. "We have treatment, but we do not have a cure." The Masai Clinic in Guelph and its satellite office in Waterloo, a program of the AIDS Committee of Guelph, are staffed by three HIV specialist physicians and two nurses. Of the roughly 350 HIV/AIDS patients in the region, 81 percent have achieved undetectable viral loads thanks to treatment. "Our statistics here at the clinic in Guelph-Waterloo are excellent, not only for patient care, but for patients being compliant with treatment," Clatworthy said. The Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life will be held on Sept. 16 in Riverside Park; registration begins at 10 a.m.; and the walk steps off at 11 a.m. For more information, visit www.aidsguelph.org.

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