Health Action AIDS
Health Professional Summit on US Global AIDS Policies for Injection Drug Users
An HIV epidemic is currently racing through Eastern Europe and Asia, mostly driven by injection drug use. With this in mind, Physicians for Human Rights organized a Health Professional Summit on US Global AIDS Policies for Injection Drug Users, held in Washington, DC on March 5th and 6th.
Twenty-three health professionals from 15 states in the US attended the summit, many with experience in treating injection drug users. The doctors, nurses, HIV prevention and addiction specialists discussed ways to use their expertise to help policy makers understand the urgency of this epidemic and the most effective responses to help contain it. On March 6, these health professionals met with a total of 46 House and Senate offices to educate their Congressional delegations about the need for a plan grounded in scientifically supported interventions.
PHR also organized and co-sponsored a March 5 lunchtime Congressional briefing together with amfAR--the Foundation for AIDS Research, and the HIV Medicine Association, entitled "Confronting Rapidly Emerging HIV Epidemics in Asia and Eastern Europe: A Special Focus on Vietnam." The briefing included discussion from internationally respected scientists in the field of HIV prevention among injection drug users: Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health & Human Rights and the Johns Hopkins Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program; Don Des Jarlais, PhD, Director of Research, Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute, Beth Israel Medical Center; and Ted Hammett, PhD, Vice-President of Abt Associates, Inc.
HIV epidemics emerging rapidly across Eastern Europe and Asia are largely driven by increasing heroin use and related unsafe injection practices throughout this vast region. Such epidemics move quickly because of the efficiency of blood-to-blood transmission and because of lack of access to health care, including HIV prevention and treatment, among the highly marginalized users. Already, injection drug users account for close to one-third of HIV infection outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Without sufficient health interventions, the virus has begun to spread to the partners and to infants of drug users in numerous countries. Russia, Vietnam and parts of China are experiencing generalized epidemics that have moved beyond groups vulnerable to infection through drug use or commercial sex.
The presentations made during the Congressional briefing indicated that, while HIV infection rates among drug users are as high as 70% in a number of countries, research is showing that infection rates can be reduced in resource poor settings. The Vietnamese government, for instance, has recently changed some of its punitive policies toward people dependent on illicit drugs in favor of an approach that includes medication-assisted addiction treatment and access to sterile syringes. Drs. Des Jarlais and Hammett have led a cross-border HIV prevention project in Southern China and Northern Vietnam that has dramatically slowed not only the number of new infections but also the number of new drug injectors in the region. The project involves local health, police and political officials, as well as community residents and drug users.
PHR advocates for a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention among injection drug users that includes access to condoms and sterile syringes, addiction treatment, outreach and education.
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