Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 3 December 2003
Among the commitments made at a special UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS in 2001, were those to eliminate laws, policies and practices that discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDS by 2003.
But social evil campaigns and highly discriminatory attitudes in many countries are leading to people with HIV/AIDS or those at high risk, being singled out as deserving punishment. It is an approach that is fuelling the epidemic and driving the unsafe practices of injecting drug users underground. The situation is becoming ever more urgent with latest UNAIDS statistics showing several countries joining a list of nations in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America where sharing injecting equipment use has set the ground for spiralling HIV/AIDS epidemics.
"Nowhere is the gap between a humanitarian response based on compassion and scientific evidence and the inadequacies of actual practices more evident than in the inhumane treatment of injecting drug users (IDUs). They are forced underground and denied access to life-saving treatment," said International Federation president, Juan Manuel Suarez del Toro. "This is happening despite research on best practices being overwhelmingly in favour of programmes that lessen vulnerability to HIV among injecting drug users, such as needle exchange and drug substitution treatment."
The International Federation sees such programmes as essential to simultaneously tackling both stigma and discrimination and the spread of the disease. In Europe, several Red Cross Societies are implementing initiatives such as needle exchange programmes and drug substitution. This includes Russia which has an estimated 3 million injecting drug users.
"The sad thing is that the spread of HIV/AIDS through injecting drug use is an entirely preventable disaster. What is needed is greater support for initiatives such as those of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, not hindrance. Without this kind of support, the pandemic will remain not just undefeated, but will flourish. Governments must not allow this to happen," said Julian Hows, European representative of the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, a speaker at the International Conference.
For further information, or to set up interviews, please contact:
Jemini Pandya, International Federation, Geneva, tel. ++41 79 217 33 74 Ian Piper, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 20 63, ++41 79 217 32 16, or ++41 79 203 43 38
Antonella Notari, ICRC Geneva, tel. ++41 22 730 22 82, or ++41 79 217 32 80
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