Section of Infectious Diseases - News
News from Section Head
There are a number of activities going on in the background that will affect the way ID operates and provides clinical care:
- HPTP clinics from FMC and RVH are moving to the RRDTC site autumn 2008 to form a single combined clinic.
- The Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic will be moving from UCMC to the new TRW building and will be closely associated with the Respirology program there.
- General ID clinics at UCMC will also be moving to TRW.
- The MRSA clinic will ultimately have dedicated space in the RRDTC in 2009, in close juxtaposition to the Dermatology clinics.
- STI and SAC clinics will be moving to the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre in summer 2008.
This is a busy time for all those involved in moving these clinics to new space. In addition, my term as Section Head will finish June 30, 2008. A search and selection committee is underway to select a new ID Section Head.
News from Southern Alberta Clinic
The Southern Alberta HIV clinic (SAC) is the regional provider of all HIV care within Southern Alberta offering a unique opportunity for gaining extensive HIV clinical experience in a large diverse population living with HIV. Within the context of care provision it is actively engaged in many areas of its own observational research such as HIV epidemiology and outcomes, health care policy and economics of care. SAC is also a founding cohort in shared observational research within the NA Accord (NIH Funded), Cascade (EU funded), ART-CC (MRC UK funded) and HCV Canadian (CIHR funded) observational cohort collaborations. SAC is active in traditional areas of randomized trials of new therapies through the Canadian HIV Trials Network (CIHR funded). SAC also collaborates actively with both the clinical laboratories as well as basic science projects in HIV at the University of Calgary in areas such as viral diversity, drug resistance and hepatitis B co-infections.
News from Sexually Transmitted Infections Clinic
The clinic has moved to the new Sheldon Chumir Health Centre and we continue to see about 25,000 patients per year at the new site.
The rates of syphilis, gonorrhea and Chlamydia continue to rise relentlessly in response to a decrease in condom use as the public becomes less fearful of HIV/AIDS. Major media and targeted campaigns (including internet sites) are underway to raise awareness among the public.
The clinic hours have been foreshortened in response to a critical shortage of STD nurse specialists. It takes about 6 months to train an STD nurse to function fully effectively in the clinic. We have just hired a clinical educator to take over the training process and to develop educational programs for patients.
Ciprofloxacin resistance among gonorrhea isolates in Alberta continues to run at 35-50%, and Cipro has been taken off the list of approved empiric therapies for GC. Cephalosporin resistance is beginning to develop, and a few treatment failures have already been seen. Changes to the Canadian STI treatment guidelines for gonorrhea are immanent.
Section Awards
Dr. Harvey Rabin Recipient of the Department of Medicine
2007 Dr. John Dawson Award for Clinical Excellence
Dr. Ron Read Recipient of the Department of Medicine
2006 Dr. Howard MacEwen Award for Clinical Excellence