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Report

 

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Authors
Task Force on Drug Use and HIV Vulnerability
Title
Drug Use and HIV Vulnerability: Policy Research Study in Asia
Imprint
UNAIDS Asia Pacific Intercountry Team, Bangkok, October 2000, 238 pp
Description

The principal investigators of the study were Edna Oppenheimer and Adrian Reynolds.

Abstract

"Drug use and HIV vulnerability remain issues of great concern for many countries in Asia and the Pacific because surveys indicate that in some geographical areas more than sixty per cent of all injecting drug users are HIV- positive. In several Asian countries, injecting drug users represent the largest group of those who are HIV-positive. In 1997, in response to this situation, the UNAIDS Asia-Pacific Intercountry Team established a Task Force, comprised of a team of experts in drug control and public health. The Task Force designed and commissioned the present study on national drug control and public health policies that could facilitate or impede the implementation of interventions to reduce the risk of HIV transmission among drug users. Study-countries included China, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam. Data collection for the survey was completed in May 1999 and the report was distributed to governments and concerned agencies for their review and comments. The results of the study, which are documented in this monograph,
indicate that in many countries serious legal and political barriers exist, which impede the implementation of effective preventive interventions for the spread of HIV infection among injecting drug users. Such interventions include needle and syringe exchange or distribution and drug treatment as part of comprehensive package of interventions."

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