Drug users who are living with HIV/AIDS face a double stigma and exclusion from society

The use of injecting drugs has spread rapidly and it is now a reality in many countries. In some regions,
such as Central and Eastern Europe, the sharing of syringes by drug users is one of the main sources
of HIV infection. Drug users who are living with HIV/AIDS face a double stigma and exclusion from
society.
Where programmes have been set up to help drug users, their purpose has been almost exclusively to get users
to stop. These programmes remain crucial, but governments increasingly are recognising that this is not enough.
New avenues for action have been developed, in particular “harm reduction”, including the prevention of HIV
transmission.
“Harm Reduction” programmes aim to reduce health risks to injecting drug users and the community, for example
by providing clean syringes and information about HIV/AIDS. These programmes have been endorsed and are
encouraged by the United Nations.
The International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights specifically recommend that governments
consider supporting needle and syringe exchange services and programmes to promote the best attainable
health and welfare of injecting drug users.
The results of studies of harm reduction programmes in a range of countries, including the USA, Australia and
Belarus, clearly show that they can significantly reduce new HIV infections among drug users. In Belarus, for
example, a programme including education and the distribution of syringes and condoms, was estimated to have
prevented over 2000 cases of HIV infection in only two years. The cost was US$29 per infection prevented - far
below the cost of an AIDS case to a family or a health system