HEALTH WATCH
Poorly Screened Immigration Leads to Soaring HIV Rates in Alberta and Quebec
This is “a time when HIV is blazing through Canada at far greater rates than before. In Alberta, the number of new, reported annual infections once hovered at 200 to 300 per year, but shot up to 500 in 2023. Immigration and drug use are likely factors driving the increase. The same period saw a 120 per cent infection increase in Montreal, where immigration was the dominant cause. It makes sense; Canada is a good place to settle if one has a lifelong, expensive-to-treat viral infection — which is likely why at least 251 people, 15 per cent of attendees at a Montreal AIDS conference last year, claimed asylum.” (National Post, December 31, 2024)
