Free condom, needle plan to start soon

Star: PETALING JAYA: The harm-reduction pilot programme that was due to kick off last month – involving free condoms and needle exchange for drug users to reduce HIV/AIDS – will begin within a few weeks, said Malaysian AIDS Council president Prof Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman.
The delay was due to the recent long break to mark the Chinese New Year festivities, she said.
Furthermore, she added, there was some paperwork with the police that needed to be completed, as well as the need to train those involved in the programme.
“We are ready to go. It is not easy because we are starting from ground zero. But we have had great cooperation from the police, which is the key thing because they need to understand what we are doing,” she said.
The MAC is helping the Health Ministry to set up the pilot project, which will cover Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor.
Initially, Kelantan and Pahang were also included in the project.
However, said Dr Adeeba, it was important to “keep things small.”
“There are not a lot of people to get this project off the ground and it involves a lot of training. And we want to do it well,” she said.
Dr Adeeba, who also heads the Malaysian Harm-Reduction Working Group (HRWG) – which advocates evidence-based public health policies in relation to HIV prevention, treatment and care for drug users – said the pilot project would be carrying out the programme at drop-in centres and through outreach workers.
“There will be about 15 people doing this at each site. They are made up of (Malaysian AIDS Council) affiliates.
“We are hoping to get about 400 drug users per site for the 12-month project. They are free to come by at the drop-in centres or the outreach workers will go to them,” she added.
Statistics released by the ministry show that 64,439 Malaysians were infected from 1986 until December last year and the number of new cases in 2004 was 6,427.
Of the total number of people living with AIDS reported so far, 75% are intravenous drug users. It has been estimated that if left unchecked, 300,000 Malaysians would be infected with HIV in 10 years.
A study by the Cabinet sub-committee on Drug Addicts Treatment and Rehabilitation some years ago revealed that 65% of drug addicts were intravenous drug users, injecting drugs more than thrice a day and sharing needles with more than five people.
The study also showed that 77.6% of the intravenous drug users were sexually-active, with only 18.7% using condoms during sex. The same study revealed that the risk of contracting HIV among intravenous drug users was six times higher than with others.