October 13, 2006
US OPPOSITION TO NEEDLE EXCHANGE QUASHES RESOLUTION IN NEW ZEALAND
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Last week, the Bush Administration sent officials all the way to Auckland, New Zealand to block efforts to promote access to clean needles for injection drug users and condoms for sex workers. At the World Health Organization's Asia-Pacific conference, regional officials withdrew a resolution calling for universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment because the US delegation insisted on changes to language on needle-exchange programs for injection drug-users (IDUs) and "had issues with" naming high-risk groups such as IDUs, sex workers, and gay men and other men who have sex with men. (Check out the AP story at PEPFAR Watch.)
The region is home to the fastest growing AIDS epidemics in the world, and nearly 85% of people who need it have no access to anti-retroviral drug treatment. Injection drug use accounts for the majority of new HIV infections.
In China, the number of reported AIDS cases increased by 44% from 2001 to 2002, having risen by 206% from 2000 to 2001. Over 60% of HIV transmissions occur through contaminated needle use, and unofficial estimates put the number of injection drug users at three to three and a half million.
In Vietnam, where HIV/AIDS has yet to reach epidemic proportions, 65% of HIV infections are found among IDUs.
In Malaysia, where more than 75% of all HIV infections are among injecting drug users, only 12% of those receiving ARV are IDUs.
According to New Zealand Health Minister Pete Hodgson, who chaired WHO's annual weeklong conference of officials from the Western Pacific region, New Zealand has had needle exchange for 20 years - it has been "an amazing success".
Although international experts, the medical community, people living with HIV/AIDS, and those most at risk for infection testify that needle exchange works, the US government pursues its own regressive agenda. In New Zealand, the US delegation tried to insert its "abstinence" approach to AIDS, in repeat of the appalling performance at the United Nations this past June.
Officials from the region said they would rather have no resolution than one weakening pre-existing standards. Questioned by the AP Press, US officials at the conference declined to comment.
WONDERING WHY OUR GOVERNMENT HAS POWER AT A REGIONAL MEETING IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC?
Visit the official WHO for the Western Pacific Region http://www.wpro.who.int/rcm/en/home.htm.
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