Pubdate: Wed, 16 Aug 2006
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2006 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Sheryl Ubelacker, Canadian Press

ILLICIT DRUGS FUEL HIV RATES: MD

TORONTO -- The illicit drug trade is fuelling HIV-infection rates in 
many parts of the world -- and too much reliance on punitive drug 
enforcement is compromising efforts to prevent spread of the disease, 
the International AIDS Conference was told Tuesday.

Australian physician Alex Wodak said that one in every 10 new HIV 
infections around the world occurs among injection drug users, and 
they are responsible for about 30 per cent of new infections outside Africa.

"And the proportion of global HIV infections attributable to 
injection drug use are growing," said Wodak, director of the Alcohol 
and Drug Service at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney.

Bill Clinton, in his speech, paid tribute to Stephen Lewis, the UN 
special envoy for AIDS in Africa, saying the world owes the Canadian 
a debt of gratitude for his passion and no-nonsense approach in the 
multi-fronted battle against the disease.

"I always love sharing the stage with Stephen Lewis, although he is a 
hard act to follow," Clinton said with a grin after Lewis eloquently 
introduced him.

"Empowering women to protect themselves seems so elemental, and yet 
when I hear people pontificating against AIDS and acting as if we can 
do everything through abstinence, I think they don't know what most 
women are up against in too many parts of the world today," Clinton 
said, receiving an enthusiastic burst of applause. Abstinence is a 
contentious issue in HIV-AIDS circles. PEPFAR (the President's 
Emergency Program for AIDS Relief), for instance, is allocating 
one-third of its five-year, $15-billion funding to abstinence-based 
prevention programs.

Clinton said he does not condemn those whose values lead them to 
promote abstaining from sex. But he said he doesn't think 
abstinence-only programs work.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman