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DOH mulls clean needle program for drug addicts

In a bid to battle skyrocketing HIV/AIDS infection rates among intravenous drug users, health authorities are weighing the feasibility of a needle exchange program to help the high-risk group, health officials said yesterday.

"The chances of drug users contracting HIV here is very high. We are brainstorming ideas and will put forth practical solution soon," said Department of Health,Director-General Hou Sheng-mou (侯勝茂) yesterday.

The killer virus has spread among this socially ostracized group at an alarming pace. Statistics from the Center for Disease Control show that there were 446 intravenous drug users infected with HIV last year alone, a staggering six-fold increase compared with 2003 figures. Last month, 92 drug users found to be HIV positive, accounting for nearly 80 percent of all known infection routes.

To curb the ever-rising infection rate, health officials are considering modeling a harm-reduction program after the Australian model, which includes offering clean needles to drug addicts.

"The needle-exchange program has been effective in containing the disease in Australia. We are willing to experiment with the radical pilot project after reaching a consensus," said Ling Ting (林頂), deputy director of the Center for Disease Control, after a meeting on AIDS prevention convened by the health department.

Setting up the needle-exchange program, however, requires support from the police and the judiciary.

"If we are to offer clean needles, we first need to revise a host of statutes that outlaw drug use," Lin said.

"We have to persuade [drug users] that we are here to help them, not to bust them," he added.

HIV/AIDS prevention groups confirmed the government's outreach efforts, but they are also wary of the program's risks.

"If the government wants to push ahead with the project, they must exercise caution. Health officials must specify where needles are to be handed out, and this must be regulated," said Wang Chung-chi (王中奇), director of the Living with Hope Organization, a non-profit group that pay regular visits to people with HIV in prisons and hospitals.

"Failure of needle the exchange program could mean a wider spread of AIDS," said Wang. Wang cited the lesson to be learned from Greece, where inmates become infected with needles handed out in prison.

"If needles are not properly regulated, places where clean needles are available may be turned into hotbeds of HIV," he warned.

Some health officials were also skeptical as whether the foreign HIV/AIDS prevention approaches will be the right cure to local problems.

"The situation in Taiwan is quite different from those in other countries. Unlike Australia, Canada or the US, needles in Taiwan are not a strictly regulated medical device. Any person can spend NT$5 a get a clean needle at a drug store. The availability of clean needles is not the issue," said Li Jih-heng (李志恆), director-general of the National Bureau of Controlled Drugs.

Rather than doling out clean needles, the government should focus their efforts on taking the "guilt" out of needle possession, Li said.

"Because the police often go to drug stores to seek clues, fewer and fewer drug users dare to go buy needles. It is predictable that drug users resort to needle sharing," Li said.

To what extent the needle program will curb the infection rate is anyone's guess, Li said. Arguably a more practical strategy would be to re-educate police, who are used to fighting gun battles with drug dealers and throwing users in detention centers, according to Li.

"We need a different way to look at the sufferers. Police and health officers should work together to help them kick the habit instead of driving them underground," Li said.

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