RED CROSS RED CRESCENT CALLS ON GOVERNMENTS TO END SOCIAL
EVIL POLICIES THAT FUEL HIV/AIDS
Governments need to stop treating people who are at high risk from HIV/AIDS
as social evils and urgently address the stigma, discrimination and marginalization
of these groups if global efforts to combat the disease are to be achievable,
said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The call comes on the eve of the 14th International Conference on the Reduction
of Drug Related Harm in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, which runs between
6-10 April. The conference, of which the International Federation is a co-host,
will address, among other issues, the negative impact of social evil policies
on preventing HIV infection. Among the groups generally targeted as a social
scourge, are injecting drug users and commercial sex workers.
We need greater recognition world-wide of the fact that by ostracising and
marginalizing groups of people, they are made especially vulnerable to disease.
We know that by being singled out as deserving punishment, the unsafe practices
of injecting drug users are being driven underground, resulting in a public
health disaster, said Massimo Barra, founder of an Italian Red Cross foundation
that assists injecting drug users and board member of the Global Fund to fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Southern Europe and communities in North and South America and Australia, have
previously experienced explosions in HIV epidemics through the use of shared
injecting equipment. Eastern Europe and parts of Asia in particular, are today
witnessing alarming rates of HIV infection through shared injecting drug equipment.
In Eastern Europe, which has the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world,
HIV rates have soared by 1300 per cent since 1996 while in Russia, up to 90
per cent of registered infections have been attributed to the use of shared
injecting equipment.
The only way to reverse this trend is for governments to implement policies
that see a deliberate shift from social exclusion to social inclusion of injecting
drug users. Reach out to them and make their practices safe. Providing clean
needles is a start, added Barra.
Studies show that needle exchange programmes have reduced high-risk behaviour
among injecting drug users by as much as 80 per cent, with an estimated 30 per
cent or more reduction in HIV infection rates.
There is clear scientific evidence that needle exchange programmes work. They
help contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic and in a very cost effective way. Evidence
is also clear that these programmes do not promote drug use. On the contrary,
they are associated with decreased drug use, said Bernard Gardiner, head of
the International Federations HIV/AIDS unit.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent is already implementing such programmes in several
countries, including Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Portugal and Spain in collaboration
with governments or other organisations, while the Vietnamese and Chinese Red
Cross have begun to include injecting drug users in their HIV/AIDS prevention
programmes.
For further information, or to set up interviews (ISDN line available in Geneva),
please contact:
In Chiang Mai,
Omar Valdimarsson, Regional Information Delegate Tel: + 66 1 823 9218
In Geneva,
Jemini Pandya, Press Officer Tel: + 41 22 730 4570 / + 41 79 217 3374
Media Service Duty Phone Tel: + 41 79 416 38 81
The Federation, the national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
and the International Committee of the Red Cross together constitute the International
Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. For further information on Federation activities,
please see our web site: www.ifrc.org
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