From May 1-4th 2025, the Canadian Association for HIV Research hosted the 34th iteration of its Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This conference is one of the pre-eminent conferences for HIV research in Canada, with researchers from across the country attending to share their latest research findings and to engage and discuss with other researchers. This year, the RID Program was represented at the conference by Sofia Nicolls, who is a master’s student pursuing her MSc. as part of the NOVA-HIV Study. Sofia presented a poster entitled “Assessing Human Papillomavirus Self-Sampling Attitudes in Cisgender Women and People with a Cervix Living with HIV in Canada” as part of the conference, which described findings collected from participants in the NOVA HIV Study. The data described the attitudes and preferences regarding HPV self-sampling as a cervical cancer screening method for women and people with a cervix living with HIV across Canada. Key findings included over 70% of surveyed participants preferring to self-collect samples for HPV screening rather than have a provider collect it, over 80% saying they would be likely to use the HPV self-sampling in the future to screen for cervical cancer, and significant concerns in the population in regards to HPV being identified (concerns regarding a positive HPV result, passing HPV to a partner, and disclosing their HPV status to friends and family). The poster presentation was received very well, with Sofia presenting and answering questions from attendees very effectively.
For more information on Sofia’s presentation, click here to access the abstract for the poster!