Effective Interventions on Drug Use and HIV

Four groups presented on issues relating to effective interventions on Drug use and HIV. The Chinese evaluation of needle social marketing to reduce drug injection sharing behaviours among IDUs in china which aimed to reduce the risk of infection by making needles available through outreach teams to IDUs concluded that although the rate of needle sharing dropped significantly (i.e. from more than 60 percent to less than 45 percent the sexual behaviours of this group still put them at high risk. The Indian research on the identifiable constraints in harm reduction for IDUs suggested that sensitising the community, and involving the community can address some of the issues. They found that sensitising and involving influential women from the community increased the support for IDUs in their family and community groups. Another study found there was a need for safe injecting practice information to be emphasised in counselling and outreach sessions with non-injecting drug uses as they often inject in times of shortage or crisis. The Vietnamese assessment of the effectiveness of the harm reduction programs among injecting drug users found that there were significant behaviour changes over the two year period of the study with the incidence of needle sharing dropping from more than 70 percent to less than 30 percent. They found that there was a reduction in the incidence of all risk behaviours. Over all they found that harm reduction among IDUs is an effective and appropriate response to the current situation to limit the transmission of HIV/AIDS.