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| Kathmandu Friday March 22, 2002 Chaitra 09, 2058. |
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Drug
use: A major driving force to HIV epidemic in region
Post Report
KATHMANDU, March
21:Countless studies have shown that drug use has become one of the major driving forces
to the HIV epidemic in the region. The National Centre for AIDS and STD Control -1999
report states that HIV prevalence among Intravenous Drug Users (IDUs) has shot up from 0
percent in 1994 to nearly 50 percent in 1999, wherein half of these infections are among
young people.
Meanwhile, UNAIDS 2001
report states that every 2 minutes a young person in South and South East Asia gets
infected with HIV. With over six million people living with HIV/AIDS in the region, one
third of them are young people between the age of 15-24 which are especially vulnerable to
contracting HIV through drug use due to sharing needles and syringes and also because of
high risk sexual behaviour.
To address the issue of
the increasing number of (IDUs) posing vulnerability to HIV infection, a two-day workshop
on "Youth, HIV/AIDS and Drug Use in Asia" was held in the capital with the
participation of fifty-six participants from eleven South and South East Asian countries.
The participants
expressed an urgent need for advocacy and to increase political commitment towards
supportive policy to reduce drug use in Nepal. Doris D’ Cruz Grote, Regional HIV/AIDS
Advisor, Bangkok said, "The needle exchange programme in Nepal that began long
before, has been supportive and covered only with 10 percent of IDUs."
A participant from
Bangladesh sharing policies and strategies in his country said that needle exchange
programme in Bangladesh has greatly reduced the risk of the spread of HIV among IDUs.
The workshop has made
special recommendations for Nepal that included formation of task force on youth, drug use
and AIDS, capacity building though study visits, networking and further development and
implementation of skill-based education.
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