Keeping Sask. HIV information current
Every World AIDS Day, public health officials in Saskatchewan release numbers of new HIV cases in the province.
Historically the data is from the previous year, but that is slowly changing. This year, the Saskatoon Health Region talked about 2014 information, but also added preliminary numbers from up to Nov. 23, 2015 as well.
Dr. Johnmark Opondo, Saskatoon’s deputy medical health officer, said often they have had the numbers for months before they are released. If they wait until the end of the year, he said, “lots of things have happened.”
“Sometimes I think it is worth telling the community if we are seeing trends that are important. The other way of that doing that is declaring an outbreak,” he said.