War on drugs prevents end to AIDS

published on July 30, 2012 in The Vancouver Sun

The following op-ed was written by Dr. Evan Wood.

Looking around the massive Walter E. Washington Convention Centre - home this week to 23,000 scientists, physicians and members of the global community fighting the HIV/ AIDS epidemic - it looks like all the invitations didn't go out.

Remarkably, the group among the most hard hit by HIV/AIDS is largely absent from the 19th International AIDS Conference. People addicted to intravenous drug use suffer extreme human rights abuses under a myriad of misguided policies in many areas of the world, and are barred entry to the United States. To add further injury, the issue of drug addiction has received scant attention at the conference, especially when compared to the impact it has on driving HIV infection.

Today, the use of heroin and other drugs account for approximately one-third of new HIV infections outside sub-Saharan Africa. And while the annual number of new HIV infections has been declining globally in recent decades, the rate of new HIV cases has increased by more than 25 per cent in seven countries over this time span, largely as a result of HIV transmission related to intravenous drug use. Locally, much of the dramatic increase in HIV in Canada's first nations communities stems from transmission among those living with drug addiction.

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BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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War on drugs prevents end to AIDS

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