AIDSCAREWATCH Monitor

 

HIV & Harm Reduction

 

From the Campaign Trail

The success and limits of harm reduction

 

By, Lawrence D., Gay City News, February 14, 2008

Research presentations by AIDS epidemiologists and medical doctors offer ample understanding of the impact of harm reduction in preventing or slowing the spread of HIV. When it comes to preventing the virus' transmission, the two biggest harm reduction innovations have been needle exchange and safer sex approaches conceptualized and implemented in the US in the mid-to late 1980s. I work in addiction medicine, specifically methadone maintenance, which fosters needle exchanges and offers opiate-injecting addicts a means of obtaining opiate medication without the use of needles. It has emerged as one of the most effective harm reduction tools. Two decades later, how do needle exchange and safer sex campaigns compare in terms of results?  more...

Feature Story

Iran's addicts fall victim to geography

By, Anna Fifield (Tehran), Financial Times Deutschland, February 28, 2008

 

Iran shares a long border with Afghanistan, which produces 90 per cent of the world's opium, and as much as half of that is smuggled through Iran. The country's proximity to the world's biggest opium producer has led an estimated 5m into narcotics. Three years ago things could hardly have been worse for Ali-Reza Fatehi. His family had disowned him, he had lost his profitable business selling socks in the Tehran bazaar and his television set was his only friend. Then he was not watching television he was rifling through rubbish bins to collect plastic that he could sell on to recycling companies. "It was a very degrading job and completely out of character for me," says Mr Fatehi, looking down at his stained shaking hands through dark-ringed eyes. "But at the time I was doing crack and heroin and I wasn't myself."  more...

 

Global Highlight

The Goa Declaration     

By, Bobby Ramakant, Health and Development networks KC, January, 2008

 

Besides being the world’s largest producer of opiates and other drugs such as Amphetamine type substances (ATS), the Asian and the pacific region is home to the largest number of drug users. Although evidence-based, cost-effective approaches are endorsed and promoted by various agencies people who use drugs in the region continue to be oppressed by discriminatory government policies and non-evidence based ‘solutions’ to drug use, such as imprisonment and compulsory detoxification and rehabilitation. Without taking into consideration the socio-economic factors underpinning drug use in the region, people who use drugs will continue to be harassed, marginalised and discriminated against, stereotyped as dangerous and imprisoned.  more...

 

ACW Perspective

Harm reduction is easy: Put your money where your mouth is

By, Pascal Tanguay, HDN, January, 2008

 

"Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves?" demanded a European couple stumbling on the opening ceremony festivities here in Goa. "You should be, enjoying parties and conferences that cost millions, while people living with HIV can’t even afford to buy their medication!” “We pay our taxes and when we get home we are going to contact our member of parliament.” While many probably share their views about the costs of HIV-related conferences in general, the tirade points to a deep-seated misconception: that taxes in rich nations provide for high quality and comprehensive HIV prevention, care, treatment and support for people living with HIV (PLHIV) throughout the world. The fact is, they don't.  more...

Spotlight

Female IDUs in Asia call for greater access to services  

By, Baralee, HDN Key Correspondent, February, 2008

 

When the problems associated with injecting drug use in Asia are discussed, stigma and discrimination are often listed among users’ main concerns. For female injecting drug users (IDUs), these problems are often exacerbated. Onuma, a female IDU from Thailand said, “If you were injecting drugs, you would face discrimination. If you were a female IDU, you would be treated worse than men and if you were a female IDU living with HIV you would be at the bottom of the scale—completely worthless.” Many Asian countries are adopting harm reduction approaches to the fight against HIV and AIDS and drop-in centres and programs for IDUs are available in some areas. Unfortunately, few of these services cater to the needs of women.  more...

 

ACW Alert

Harm-reduction advocates outraged at UN call to shut Insite

By, Christina Montgomery, The Province, March 08, 2008

 

Supporters of Canada's harm-reduction approach to drug addiction are livid that a United Nations monitoring body wants Ottawa to slam the door shut on Vancouver's safe-injection site -- and put an end to distribution of "safe" crack kits to addicts. In an annual report by the International Narcotics Control Board released this week, the UN board said distribution of the kits in some areas of Canada contravened part of the UN's Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs. The board said the drug programs violate international drug-control treaties to which Canada is a party. The disposable crack-pipe mouth pieces -- usually rubber-tipped glass tubes -- are given to addicts to avoid the spread of blood-borne diseases, including HIV and hepatitis, when addicts share pipes.   more...

 

Real Speak

Don't give us false illusions of hope: injecting drug users   

By, Bobby Ramakant, Healthdev, January, 2008

 

Repeated calls for harm reduction approaches to HIV prevention, treatment and care, particularly for injection drug users (IDUs), were answered with a reality check on the second day of the first Asian Consultation on Prevention of HIV Related to Drug Use, in Goa. During a session that brought together parliamentarians, civil society activists and IDUs, the voices of several users provided delegates with a stark reminder of the reality on the ground. “Drug users are treated as criminals, as sub-human beings” said Bijaya Pandey from Nepal. “For the past few years we have been hearing about ‘3 by 5’ and ‘2010’– please, please, don’t give us a false illusion of hope,” Pandey said, referring to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) failed initiative to provide antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to three million people by end of 2005, and the promise of universal access to prevention, treatment and care by 2010.  more...

 

Glossary

Harm reduction is a philosophy of public health, intended to be a progressive alternative to the prohibition of certain potentially dangerous lifestyle choices. The central idea of harm reduction is the recognition that some people always have and always will engage in behaviours which carry risks, such as casual sex, prostitution, and drug use. The main objective of harm reduction is to mitigate the potential dangers and health risks associated with the risky behaviours themselves. Another objective of harm reduction is to reduce harm associated with, or caused by, the legal circumstances under which the behaviours are carried out (for example, prohibition of certain acts or substances can help create a black market where illicit trade flourishes). Harm reduction initiatives range from widely accepted ideas, such as designated driver campaigns, to more controversial initiatives, like the provision of condoms in public schools, needle exchange programs or safer injection sites for intravenous drug users, drug legalization, and heroin maintenance programs.  more...