Sex differences in houselessness, injection drug use, and mental health conditions among people newly diagnosed with HIV in Manitoba, Canada from 2018 to 2021: a retrospective cohort study

This article published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas reports the findings of our project. Our research was co-designed and co-developed with people living with HIV, HIV clinicians and frontline workers, and HIV and public health program managers and administrators with equity, sex and gender-based and intersectional lenses. This study describes a unique North American population newly diagnosed with HIV with growing incident rates of HIV and lower proportions of undetectable viral load. Nearly 50% of this population were female. A significant proportion of females and males newly diagnosed with HIV have at least one or more intersections between houselessness, injection drug use, and mental health. While many individuals in the cohort started antiretroviral treatment (81.2%), only 64.9% achieved an undetectable viral load (61.1% among females and 67.9% among males, and around 60% among people experiencing houselessness, PWID, and people who use methamphetamine).

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