Dr. Ameeta Singh, left, allows nurse Noel Ives, right, to demonstrate how a rapid HIV and syphilis test works.
Health officials are teaming up to make syphilis testing more accessible to people living in central Alberta as the province grapples with a worsening years-long outbreak of the serious sexually transmitted infection.In this photo from 2022, Dr. Ameeta Singh, left, and nurse Noel Ives work with the syphilis-HIV rapid test. Singh is embarking on a new research program to explore different ways to get the test to people.
Now, Singh has received $400,000 in federal funding to explore different ways of reaching — and testing — people potentially affected by syphilis and HIV. Some of the work will happen in Maskwacis, about 85 kilometres south of Edmonton, one of Alberta's largest First Nations communities.
Singh's clinical trial, which ran from August 2020 to February 2022, used rapid tests from two manufacturers. The device made by Biolytical Laboratories received the green light from Health Canada.Canada almost wiped out syphilis. Now rates are skyrocketing — as more women, infants getting infectedThe test checks blood droplets for antibodies of the infections with a finger stick — similar to a blood-sugar test for diabetics — and results appear within minutes, Singh said.
"Instead of having people come into a health centre or hospital for testing, it would be nice if we could go out to them — perhaps using mobile vans or events — and offer this testing as part of a range or a group of other health interventions," Singh said. "You could start the backward process of finding out who the partner was… and, hopefully, in some of those cases, then you try to get those people to get tested as well and then they get treatment."
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