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Patrick O’Byrne, the Principal Investigator of .ca, joined and friends in commemorating World AIDS Day.

This morning, Patrick O’Byrne, the Principal Investigator of .ca, joined the in commemorating World AIDS Day on Parliament Hill. Read some of the words he shared here.

Today, December 1, 2025, .ca commemorates World AIDS Day. This year, the theme is ‘Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response.’ According to the , this draws our attention to “the HIV response standing at a crossroads after decades of progress. Life-saving services are being disrupted, and many communities face heightened risks and vulnerabilities. Yet amid these challenges, hope endures in the determination, resilience, and innovation of communities who strive to end AIDS.”

In this week’s practice of sharing knowledge with community, share that while self-testing accounted for a small proportion of HIV tests, it had a higher positivity rate which suggests that it is a successful way to link people to testing and treatment. However, the success of the self-test should not be considered as evidence to replace lab-based testing. It is necessary to have a variety of options to improve access to HIV testing so that we can achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals.