Pubdate: Fri, 28 Dec 2007
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

PREVENTING AIDS PREVENTION

Congress and President Bush have done the right thing, lifting a 
disastrous nine-year ban that prevented Washington from using locally 
raised tax dollars on needle-exchange programs that help fight the 
spread of AIDS. Unfortunately, that still leaves in force an even 
broader and more damaging law that prohibits the use of federal funds 
for needle-exchange programs in the United States or abroad.

That ban must also be rescinded.

The country's most important medical and public health organizations 
endorsed needle-exchange programs more than a decade ago, and such 
programs have proved highly successful all over the world. Opponents' 
charges that needle exchanges would encourage addiction have turned 
out to be nonsense.

Meanwhile, the AIDS epidemic continues to spread, driven in part by 
intravenous drug addicts who become infected when they share dirty 
needles. They then pass H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, on to 
wives and lovers and unborn children.

A recent report by the District of Columbia's health department found 
that more than 20 percent of the city's AIDS cases could be traced to 
intravenous drug users. The city, meanwhile, has the highest AIDS 
rate in the nation, with 128.4 cases per 100,000 people, compared 
with 14 cases per 100,000 in the country as a whole.

The number of cases is growing faster in Washington than in other 
cities where needle-exchange programs have had more support. Barred 
from using its own tax dollars, Washington was scraping by with a 
privately funded program that reached only a small fraction of those 
who need it.

First enacted by Congress 20 years ago, the prohibition against using 
federal dollars for these crucial needle-exchange programs has 
hobbled AIDS prevention efforts both in this country and abroad. 
Health organizations using American tax dollars should be encouraged 
rather than blocked from developing these programs.

Eliminating the federal ban would save many thousands of lives every year. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake