AIDS Saskatoon is developing a program to build a care team based on the work of the organization the 80s.

"What AIDS Saskatoon is seeing currently, is unprecedented. We first started 25 years ago focusing on direct care for gay men as they were in the end stages of their life, dying," said Nicole White, executive co-ordinator of AIDS Saskatoon.

"A lot of our work was visiting people in hospital helping to arrange funerals and to act as a liaison as family members and unfortunately, because of the HIV situation here in Saskatoon we're having to resort back to that kind of support."

While it's hard for physicians to say with numbers that there are more people dying of AIDS, several say there are more people with HIV in hospital.

"I think we're seeing more patients that are sicker than before. It's hard for me to say for sure that we're seeing larger numbers, but it's just a gestalt feeling … the specialists that are working in hospital are seeing more and we're certainly seeing a rash of people with really low CD4 counts and people who've been dying that are connected," said Ryan Meili, a family doctor at the West Side Medical Clinic.

He said he could make a long list of people he knows in the neighbourhood that have died recently.

"I can think of five, since New Years," he said. And that's just the people he knows.

"This was expected. Once we saw the spike in cases of infected patients, of course a wave is going to stat to hit of people getting really sick or dying because we're not outreaching people for treatment."

Those people with HIV are often dealing with secondary issues, said Dr. Johnmark Opondo, deputy medical health officer for the Saskatoon Health Region and a member of the HIV provincial leadership team.

"A lot of our HIV infected individuals are also co-infected with, usually it's, Hep C, but they're also battling quite serious addictions issues, so there is a variety of reasons why they end up in hospital, but yes we are seeing more in hospital," he said.

Many of the HIV clients are either homeless or relatively homeless, said Meili. Outreach workers try to connect with people who are HIV positive to care by visiting them where they live, but he said, there are challenges to homecare getting involved because of concerns around the safety of where people tend to live.

AIDS Saskatoon is calling for a hospice or someplace for people with HIV/AIDS and those unique needs to go.

"Some folks have end-stage related dementia, which makes them hard to house, on top of mental health and addiction issues," White said.

"Age would be … different, because these are tending to be pretty young people that we are seeing that are dying of AIDS in Saskatoon," Meili said.

For White, seeing the need and the deaths is concerning.

"It's scary, it's extremely scary obviously, I think the thing that is most disconcerting is folks are dying at very young ages, so we're not talking 60s, 70s a full life, these are folks who are in the end stages of their life in their late 20s," she said.

"We are extremely concerned by the situation and are trying our best to meet the needs of the community."

Opondo said he doesn't think it's a return to the 80s because now there are more tools and medications available to help people with HIV. The message is that complications can be avoided, by early treatment and intense support, he said.

When it comes to palliative or hospice care, there is nothing specific for HIV in the works. However, Opondo said that there are some preliminary discussions in the health region around a palliative care location, where anyone needing end of life care, could go.

There needs to be care when looking at HIV specific services, because of stigma, said Opondo. The region wants to make sure people who need care aren't shunned.