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Needle
Exchange
and
AIDS:
Health
Emergency
2001
Report,
Infectious
Disease
Society
Endorsement,
Global
Epidemic
11/17/00
The Dogwood Center's "Health
Emergency 2001" report provides a revealing look at, and important data
about, the impact of injection-related HIV/AIDS and laws barring provision
of sterile syringes on the African American and Latino communities in the
United States. Among Health Emergency's findings and recommendations:
-
10,000 African Americans, and
4,500 Latinos, are infected with HIV through needle sharing each year.
-
African American injection drug
users are five times as likely as white injection drug users to contract
AIDS.
-
Latino injection drug users
are at least 1.5 times as likely as white injection drug users to contract
AIDS.
-
AIDS was the second leading
cause of death among African Americans aged 25 to 44, and the fourth leading
cause of death among Latinos aged 25 to 44, in 1998. Half of these
cases, in each group, were due to needle sharing by injection drug users.
-
To stem the epidemic of injection-related
AIDS, it is necessary to improve drug education, expand drug treatment,
permit possession of sterile syringes, permit pharmacies to sell syringes
without prescription, and permit and fund needle exchange programs.
The full Health Emergency 2001
report includes a foreword by former US Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders,
and can be found online at http://www.dogwoodcenter.org
or requested in print from the Dogwood Center, P.O. Box 187, Princeton,
NJ 08542, fax: (609) 252-1464, or e-mail: [email protected].
INFECTIOUS DISEASE SOCIETY
ENDORSEMENT
The latest bulletin from
the Infectious Disease Society of America (http://www.idsociety.org)
reports that IDSA has adopted a statement in support of needle exchange
programs. IDSA's statement supports efforts to:
-
Increase intravenous drug users'
access to clean injection equipment;
-
Reform and decriminalize syringe
possession and paraphernalia laws;
-
Legalize over-the-counter syringe
access; and
-
Establish/increase federal and
other funding for needle exchange programs.
IDSA calls for all these activities
to be coupled with increased access to drug treatment.
GLOBAL EPIDEMIC
Meanwhile, injection-related
HIV and hepatitis continues to emerge as devastating global epidemics.
According to Agence France Presse (11/3 -- http://www.afp.com),
the World Bank reports that injection drug use is fueling an AIDS epidemic
in southeast Asia. All south Asian countries except Cambodia have
rising rates of drug use, and HIV rates among injection drug users are
increasing in a number of countries as well, including Thailand, Vietnam,
Bangladesh, Malaysia and Burma. Bangkok, Thailand's HIV rate among
injection drug users has risen from two percent 10 years ago to more than
40 percent today.
In Vietnam, according to
Reuters (11/7), 140,000 to 165,000 people will have HIV by year's end.
Injection drug use is among the major factors driving the growing problem.
Pakistan, according to the
Washington Post (11/12), has approximately 1.5 million heroin addicts.
While HIV has not yet hit the injecting population in force, nearly 90
percent of participants in a study by the Nai Zindagi (New Life) needle
exchange center were diagnosed with the hepatitis C virus.
-- END --
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Issue #160, 11/17/00
Interview: Federal Judge Denounces Drug War | New Jersey: Racial Profiling Documents to Be Released | Catholic Bishops Call for Broad Criminal Justice Reforms | Southern Legislators to Look at Asset Forfeiture Reform | Britain: Labour on Drugs, Wobbly and Confused | Sweden: Small Cracks Emerge in Drug War Consensus in Europe's Bastion of Reaction | Newsbrief: California Governor Finally Appoints Drug Czar in Wake of Proposition 36 | Needle Exchange and AIDS: Health Emergency 2001 Report, Infectious Disease Society Endorsement, Global Epidemic | Criminal Defense Lawyers Demand End to Drug War | The Reformer's Calendar | Editorial: A Message to the President-Elect
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