The US is pressing the UN to block the use of needle-exchange programs in countries where drug use is driving the spread of AIDS, arguing that the schemes encourage users to continue their habit.
But critics, including Britain, believe that the fight against AIDS in eastern Europe, central Asia and other parts of the world could be jeopardized if the US manages to water down the UN's policy.
The board of UNAIDS, the UN agency which coordinates the fight against the pandemic, is formulating a global prevention strategy in Geneva.
But the board may be forced for the first time to a vote on the issue.
Britain opposed the US position Monday, when UK international development minister Gareth Thomas, told the meeting in his opening statement that the UK wants to see "efforts to intensify harm reduction strategies, including needle and syringe exchange programs."
He said: "We support effective harm reduction programs, especially needle and syringe exchange and methadone among infecting drug users and their sexual partners in many countries."
The UK, he said, had "a different approach" from the US.
The row is critical, because needle sharing by injecting drug users is the main cause of the soaring figures for HIV/AIDS infection in many countries, and provides a gateway for the spread of infection into the heterosexual community through the partners of drug users.
Drug injecting is responsible for 80 percent of the cases in eastern Europe and central Asia, and is also driving the epidemic in a wide range of countries in the Middle East, north Africa, south and southeast Asia and Latin America. HIV prevalence within certain populations of drug injectors exceeds 80 percent.
Europe accepts evidence from studies which have shown needle exchanges to curb the spread of infection, but the US, which will not fund such studies domestically, does not.
The issue has already become fraught. At a meeting in Vienna earlier this year the UN agency responsible for the policing of narcotics, the UN office on drugs and crime, was forced to accept the US line and oppose needle exchanges.
USAid, the US development agency, is not permitted to fund or be involved with programs that include needle exchange.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS