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Can anybody spot the Brandon connection to this report, which is found in today's Calgary Sun (link: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/03/20/5058141-sun.html  
 
Canada welcomes HIV immigrants  
Sun learns thousands who have the virus causing AIDS allowed to come to Canada  
By BILL KAUFMANN, SUN MEDIA  
The Calgary Sun  
 
Thousands of immigrants who tested positive for HIV before entering Canada have been allowed into the country, the Sun has learned.  
 
Of 2,567 immigration hopefuls who tested positive for the disease that leads to AIDS from January 2002 - when Ottawa first began screening - to December 2006, only 126 were refused, said Lorraine Lavallee, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada.  
 
For the most part, such applicants aren't considered a public health risk nor an excessive burden on the medical system, she said.  
 
"It's not passed by casual contact," said Lavallee, adding the medical cost considered during a five to 10-year period generally isn't considered untoward.  
 
Infected adults or children with family sponsors or those with refugee status are accepted, she said.  
 
"Given Canada accepted 1.2-million immigrants in that 2002-2006 time frame, it's a very small number," said Lavallee.  
 
According to a Calgary-based medical-cost study, in 2003 it cost more than $1,100 a month to care for HIV patients.  
 
Local AIDS activists are helping a growing number of HIV-positive immigrants, says a spokeswoman for a Calgary agency.  
 
Many are heterosexuals hailing from developing countries such as those in Africa, said Susan Cress, executive director of AIDS Calgary.  
 
"We're seeing an increase in diversity - we're seeing more people from countries where HIV is endemic than ever before," said Cress, adding federal support for AIDS programs has become uncertain.  
 
About 22% of AIDS Calgary's clientele are immigrants, she said.  
 
That poses new challenges for the agency in terms of cultural sensitivity, said Cress.  
 
"It's a lot different from dealing with the gay community," she said.  
 
"You've got a mother who's coming over from Sudan who has HIV and whose child has HIV, that sort of thing."  
 
Cress acknowledged the influx of HIV immigrants can provoke a backlash from those angry over the perceived increased burden on Canada's health-care system.  
 
Canada, she said, bears a moral responsibility to assist such people whose condition "pushes them further to the margins."  
 
But, Cress said in most cases those carrying HIV only become aware of that fact after they arrive in Canada.  
 
"Getting HIV testing in their home countries is really hard - there's a stigma and it's expensive," said Cress, adding it's often up to superior Canadian health care to detect the disease.