Bangkok Post - Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi

As a major strategy in fighting HIV/Aids, Asian governments needed to urgently review their drug control policies by considering harm reduction programmes, Sandro Calvani, the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention's representative to Thailand, quoted UNAids executive director Peter Piot as saying.

The UN Aids chief's call comes as more than 50% of drug users in parts of Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal and India have the virus.

Dr Calvani supported the call, saying harm reduction programmes could reduce drug use by half.

He warned that the number of Aids victims in Asia would outstrip that of Africa if policies on HIV prevention among intravenous drug users remained unchanged.

``Governments should immediately review their policies to reach out to drug users,'' he said, adding that policies should be changed not for political reasons, but to treat and prevent people from being infected with HIV.

Citing Indonesia, Dr Calvani said if nothing was done to counter HIV/Aids among intravenous drug users, it could affect 80% of the estimated 100,000 seamen who are drug users.

The unavailability of clean needles had not only spread HIV among users, but also led to the virus being passed on to spouses, Dr Calvani said.

Though some countries believed harm reduction programmes might lead to more drug use, evidence in many countries such as Australia, Canada, Brazil and the United Kingdom had shown it could effectively reduce HIV infections without increasing drug use.

Nimit Thienudom, of the Aids Access Foundation, said efforts to introduce harm reduction programmes had been strongly opposed by the Narcotics Control Board of Thailand. The opposition came despite successful control of HIV and drug use among residents of several districts in northern provinces.

Werasit Sittitrai, director of the UNAids Programme Development and Coordination Group, said if the Thai government did not strongly campaign against HIV/Aids as it did successfully in the past decade, the epidemic could bounce back.

Mr Werasit said it was worrying that Thailand's success story of HIV/Aids prevention among military recruits and sex workers would be overshadowed by the increasing vulnerability of a new generation, many of whom did not understand the epidemic.

Of concern for Thailand was the increasing number of HIV/Aids infections among the youth, heterosexual people, intravenous drug users and gay men.

Mr Werasit also urged the private sector to combat HIV, by raising awareness among their employees and contributing resources.

The theme for this year's World Aids Day on December 1 would be removal of stigma and discrimination because it obstructed preventative measures.
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