Joint strategy on AIDS and drugs needed

There needs to be more cooperation between groups whose priority is to reduce the number of people suffering from AIDS and groups trying to stop the spread of drugs.

That is the view of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which has also advocated 'harm reduction' from drug programmes.

This means that among known drug users, new HIV infections are able to be reduced by providing access to clean needles, counselling and condoms.

Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, has called for more unity between organisations on this issue in order to protect the human rights of users.

"National drug control and HIV programmes must work together. They must be informed by evidence and grounded in human rights," he stated.

"Evidence shows that harm reduction programmes save lives. Many countries are still not providing access to the harm reduction services. This is killing people as much as the drugs themselves."

China is intending to have universal access to harm reduction programmes by 2010.

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