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Drug use fueling AIDS in Asia
It is drug use which is fueling the AIDS epidemic in Asia, according to the World Health Organization, WHO. The agency reported on Monday that several studies show that the epidemic is poised to spread explosively to the sexual partners of people who use drugs.
The Asian Report on AIDS, supported by the Asian Development Bank and coordinated by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS warned Monday that drug use, particularly intravenously, is responsible for an increase in the number of HIV infections in many countries in Asia.
A further risk lies in the high prevalence of non-injecting drug use, such as amphetamine stimulants, where users often engage in behaviour that poses a high risk of HIV infections, mainly through unprotected sex.
WHO with several partner agencies is meeting in Kuala Lumpur to finalize a regional strategy to reduce infection, including by scaling up needle and syringe programmes as well as voluntary drug treatment and social rehabilitation. The strategy also aims to provide affordable testing and counseling, support and treatment for HIV and hepatitis B and C.
Donn Bobb, UN Radio.
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