Working on behalf of HIV-positive women and sex workers over the last decade in Toronto, Yasmeen Persad knows full well that even the small victories matter when it comes to big corporations.

So the Toronto outreach worker was pretty pleased when Manulife Financial announced Friday that it will now accept applications for life insurance from people who are HIV-positive.

“It’s really important - and it was a long time coming,” noted Persad, a Caribbean-born transgender woman who works for The 519 community centre as an education and training facilitator.

The Waterloo-based insurance giant is now the first in Canada to offer life insurance policies to those living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which is now widely accepted as a chronic illness rather than a fatal condition leading to AIDS that it typically was decades ago.

Manulife looked at the latest mortality and long-term survival rates of HIV-positive Canadians and with enhanced analytics, gained a better perspective on individual risk profiles, explained Karen Cutler, Manulife vice-president and chief underwriter.

“Insurance was not around to help these folks in the past,” she said in an interview.

She noted it’s a possibility now for the more than 76,000 Canadians who have tested positive for HIV, according to the most recent federal government statistics.

“We don’t anticipate huge volumes of business for this,” Cutler said, noting it’s a relatively small community.

Those between the ages of 30 and 65 and meet certain criteria can apply for individual life insurance for up to $2,000,000.

Those who qualify will be charged higher premiums than someone without any illnesses, she said, and those rates will vary based on each individual case.

To qualify, Manulife is “looking for people who are generally very healthy” and have been followed by a specialist and compliant with their treatment for at least five years, she said.

The company was also the first in Canada to offer insurance to people with Type 1 diabetes back in 1940 after Toronto researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best discovered insulin to treat the disease.

Cutler said she expects other insurers to follow suit.

“It’s fantastic. It’s definitely a change we welcome,” said Steven Little, director of education, social enterprise and advocacy at City of Toronto agency The 519, where employees are insured by Manulife.

Gary Lacasse, executive director of the Canadian Aids Society in Montreal, said it’s a step in the right direction to assist people living with HIV.

“This is definitely the right thing to do as yet one more element of stigma and discrimination falls by the wayside. We hope that other insurers follow suit,” he said.

Manulife’s HIV insurance

Available to those ages 30 to 65

76,000 HIV-positive Canadians eligible

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Up to a maximum of $2 million in individual life insurance

Must be under specialist’s care for at least 5 years

Source: Manulife Financial