REGINA - Saskatchewan says it will hire up to 15 new workers over the next several years to deal with what medical officials are calling an alarming increase in HIV cases.
The province recorded 170 new cases last year - a 40 per cent increase - which is about twice the national average. Dr. Moira McKinnon, the province's chief medical health officer, says more than half of the cases are women under the age of 30 and most of the cases involve intravenous drug use.
About 65 per cent of the people are aboriginal, including two girls who are under 15. Seven babies were also born HIV positive.
"It is alarming," she says. "We're having women turn up who have had no pre-natal care and delivering babies and they're HIV positive. These people aren't accessing the health system."
McKinnon says most of the new cases involve people who live in poor urban areas.
"Most of the cases are reported in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert, but because the population is transient, it may be that they also have community homes and they're only disclosing their urban addresses. So we have some work to do in that area."
She says the province is also looking at bolstering testing and early treatment of HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.
"Diagnosing people early and getting them on treatment is one of the most effective ways of preventing transmission," she says.
