(BW) (SF-AIDS/NEEDLE-EXCHANGE) Federal Funds for Needle Exchange Programs Denied; Administration Shows "Callous Disregard" for Women, Communities of Color, Says Nation's Largest Needle Exchange Program

BUSINESS WIRE; Monday, April 20, 1998

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 1998--Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala has announced today her finding that needle exchange programs decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS and do not lead to increased drug use. In spite of this determination, however, Secretary Shalala will not make any federal funds available to support needle exchange efforts and instead shunted the responsibility to local communities to fund these life-saving programs.

"While we are relieved that the Secretary has acknowledged the scientific data at long last, the decision to withhold federal funding from needle exchange programs is immoral and deadly," said Pat Christen, Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation HIV Prevention Project, operator of the nation's largest needle exchange program. "This administration has shown a callous disregard for the disproportionate impact this decision will have on communities of color and women."

Nearly 50% of all new HIV infections and 44%, 44% and 61% of all reported AIDS cases among African American, Latinos, and women, respectively, are related to injection drug use.

Existing law prohibits the use of federal funds for needle exchange unless the Secretary of Heath and Human Services certifies that needle exchange reduces HIV transmission and does not encourage drug use. Numerous scientific studies, including a 1997 Consensus Conference by the National Institutes of Health, has concluded that these two conditions have been met.

"It defies logic to determine a program's efficacy and then not fund the program, especially in the middle of an epidemic," said Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. "The Administration's decision shows a lack of political will in the midst of a public health emergency."

In recent months, the Administration's deliberations were strongly influenced by the President Clinton's so-called "drug czar," General Barry McCaffrey, who opposes needle exchange despite overwhelming scientific evidence that such programs do not lead to increase drug use.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (www.sfaf.org) is a non-profit, community-based AIDS service organization that has been at the forefront of the battle against HIV disease for sixteen years. The San Francisco AIDS Foundation HIV Prevention Project works in partnership with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and operates the nation's largest needle exchange program at 2.2 million sterile syringes exchanged each year.

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CONTACT: San Francisco AIDS Foundation Derek Gordon, 415/487-3031

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