Harm Reduction Drug Project Uzbekistan - Contact Netz

In 2003, 15 million children were orphaned by AIDS, 38 million people were
infected with AIDS , and 2.9 million died of the disease (see graphs above). There
is still no prospect of an effective vaccine. The warning from UNAIDS is clear:
unless the international community acts quickly, this fatal immune deficiency
syndrome will ravage Asia – home to 60 per cent of the world’s population – as it
has already ravaged Africa.
At present, a large number of HIV carriers in Central Asia are injecting heroin
users. Injecting heroin users are clearly a high risk group. It is for this reason that
the Bangkok conference demanded the decriminalisation of drug addicts and ready
access to clean syringes. Pharmaceutical companies should waive their patent
rights on the relevant medicines, exclusion and stigma must be combated.
According to Roger Staub, head of the AIDS Section of the SFOPH, Switzerland
too needs to increase its financial contribution to international efforts to combat
AIDS. This will also benefit private industry, because the spread of AIDS in Asia
and Eastern Europe will eventually destroy export markets that are important to
Swiss industry.
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