Pubdate: Sun, 08 May 2005
Source: Agence France-Presse (France Wire)
Copyright: 2005 Agence France-Presse
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)

TAIWAN MULLS GIVING ADDICTS ACCESS TO NEEDLES TO REDUCE HIV TRANSMISSION

Taiwan's health authorities said Sunday they were considering providing 
drug users with access to sterile syringes, since needle sharing rather 
than sex is now the leading mode of HIV infection on the island. Under the 
harm-reduction program, "police may no longer follow the drug users who buy 
needles and injection equipment from drug stores," said Tsai Shu-fen, an 
official with Thailand's Centers for Disease Control. Implementation of the 
measure by local governments may vary, Tsai said, and the program would be 
started on a trial basis after further discussions among relevant 
government agencies.

The center said a needle program is a pragmatic approach to guarding the 
public health and that the approach has been successful in countries such 
as Australia, Britain and the Netherlands. The center's figures show that 
in 2002, fewer than 10 HIV patients were infected through using shared 
needles, but last year the number surged to 553. Through April of this 
year, up to 52 percent of new HIV cases were infected through needle sharing.

"If this trend continues without the government's active prevention 
measures, the number of domestic drug users infected with [HIV] could be 
dozens of times higher than now," the center warned.

As of December 2004, AIDS had killed 1,025 Taiwanese out of the 6,762 HIV 
patients registered since the nation's first case was diagnosed in 1986.
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MAP posted-by: Beth