Alarming Rates Of HIV & HCV Among African America& Latinos.

A study released this week found among drug injectors, African Americans are five times as likely to get HIV than whites and Latinos are one-and-a-half times as likely. The study also found that 50 to 80 percent of needle drug users become hepatitis C positive within six to 12 months of beginning injection drug use, making up for about half of new hepatitis C cases in the U.S. This study was released by The Dogwood Center, an independent, nonprofit research organization, in conjunction with the Harm Reduction Coalition, a group committed to reducing drug-related harm.

“This powerful report brings home the severity of the problem of AIDS spread through dirty needles. We have got to be about preventing disease,” said former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders. “Silence about the importance of needle access programs is causing the deaths of thousands of our bright young black and Latino men and women. Time is slipping away. Our bright young people are slipping away.”

The study, “Health Emergency: The Spread of Drug-Related AIDS and Hepatitis C Among African Americans and Latinos,” is the fifth study in a series detailing the impact of the injection-related AIDS and hepatitis C epidemic on African Americans and Latinos. The Dogwood Center has been documenting the spread of AIDS and hepatitis C through the “Health Emergency”
series since 1995.

The study also examines methods of disease prevention, specifically, the need for more studies to determine the benefit/critical importance of needle exchange programs among injecting drug users. According to “Health
Emergency,” there have been eight federally funded research studies that found needle exchange programs slow the spread of HIV and do not increase drug use. In addition, the latest United Nations report on worldwide AIDS prevention
also points to the importance of sterile needles for HIV prevention.

“Through this study, we are able to prove that syringe exchange is effective HIV prevention,” said Maria Chavez, California Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition. “We firmly believe that with more, federally-funded needle exchange programs, we will be able to help prevent the further spread of blood-borne disease like HIV and hepatitis C.”

The study also examined the benefit of treating people with drug addiction in helping prevent the spread of AIDS and the struggles that come with treating those that are disadvantaged and disproportionately affected by HIV and hepatitis C.

“New AIDS and hepatitis C treatments have extended life for many thousands of patients,” said Chavez. “Unfortunately, many African American and Latino patients are not benefiting as much as whites from the new treatments. The outcomes of this study underscore the critical need for action to be taken on behalf of these communities to ensure that they are receiving the information and medication they need to fight the spread of these diseases.”

Additional Study Facts and Findings

* Clean needles save lives — According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), using sterile syringes only once remains the safest, most effective approach to limiting HIV transmission among injection drug users who cannot or will not stop injecting drugs.

* Cost Effective — It is three times more expensive to provide medical treatment for one person sick with HIV/AIDS than to prevent one new HIV infection using needle exchange programs and pharmacy sale of syringes.

* Hepatitis C — With hepatitis C, as with AIDS, is a blood-borne disease where a major factor in the spread of the disease is sharing needles.

* Women, Children and Families — With thousands of motherless children and about 60 percent of all AIDS cases among women caused directly or indirectly by HIV-infected needles, the case for clean-needle programs to save the lives of women and children and prevent the destruction of families could not be stronger. Some 80 percent of infants born with HIV are African American or Latino.

* Lack of health care — Sub-optimal health care received by African American and Latino people with AIDS is translating into more infections that might be the case if these people were receiving care comparable to that received by whites.

* Bridge to Treatment — Every needs exchange program in the country serves as a major entry point to drug treatment for drug injectors.

For more information at http://www.harmreductions.org