HIV warning over Asian drug users

By Ania Lichtarowicz
BBC News health reporter

There were more than one million Aids-related deaths in Asia in 2003

Not enough is being done to prevent the spread of HIV among injecting drug users, particularly in Asia, according to the British Medical Journal.

Researchers from Australia and the UK say the health of the world's most populous region depends on how fast countries implement prevention schemes.

More than 60% of injecting drug users in many Asian countries are HIV-positive.

That number is set to rise significantly, researches say.

The virus can then spread into heterosexual populations, often through sex workers who also use drugs.

Safe drug programmes work, say the authors of an editorial in the journal.

Despite this, authorities are concerned that they may encourage drug use.

Also, Asian governments tend to follow US anti-HIV strategies which, according to the researchers, are less than impressive, with more than a third of new HIV cases in the United States related to injecting drugs.

There has been progress with needle exchange programmes in Indonesia, Vietnam and China.

However, the BMJ argues that too little is being done to curb what researchers say is probably the most serious global health problem since the Great Plague, which killed more than 25 million people in the Middle Ages.