FIFSW Postdoc Talks: “Navigating Antiretroviral Therapy Access in Colombia: An Exploratory Study with Venezuelan Migrant and Colombian Gay and Bisexual Men Living with HIV,” with Dr. Julien Brisson
March 9 @ 12:10 pm - 1:00 pm
Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis has triggered the largest mass migration in Latin America, with Colombia now hosting nearly three million Venezuelan migrants. For people living with HIV, this displacement has been driven in part by severe disruptions to care in Venezuela, including antiretroviral therapy (ART) stockouts and reliance on expired medications. Colombia’s national public healthcare system formally guarantees universal access to HIV care and ART, and, in response to large-scale migration, has adopted policy measures to extend this coverage to Venezuelan migrants.
Drawing on 66 in-depth interviews with gay and bisexual men living with HIV – 26 Venezuelan migrants and 40 Colombian nationals – this qualitative study examined how ART access is experienced and negotiated within Colombia’s public healthcare system. Participants identified multiple, intersecting factors shaping ART access, ranging from health policy and administrative processes to environmental and everyday constraints such as traffic congestion, long travel distances, and extreme weather events.
Anchored in a justice-oriented analytical framework, this presentation highlights how structural, policy, and environmental conditions within a universal public health system can nonetheless produce uneven and inequitable experiences of HIV care. The findings underscore that formal entitlement to ART does not automatically translate into effective or equitable access for all people living with HIV in Colombia.
Event details
What to expect: In this talk, Dr. Brisson addresses how the country’s universal public health care system, despite its nominal coverage, produces uneven and inequitable experiences.
Please RSVP by March 4 by filling out this form
We look forward to seeing you on March 9.
About Dr. Julien Brisson
Dr. Julien Brisson is an interdisciplinary global health researcher whose work focuses on ethics, HIV, sexuality, and adolescent health. He is currently a SSHRC Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at FIFSW/UofT, and his supervisor is Dr. Carmen Logie. This summer, Julien will join the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Université de Montréal as an Assistant Professor in the division of Medication and Population Health.