Intravenous drug use continues to fuel
the spread of HIV infection in the European Union despite public education campaigns, an EU drugs agency said today.
More than 25 per cent of IV drug users in Spain, Amsterdam, Dundee, and in selected towns in Italy and Portugal, are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
Intravenous drug users "are the biggest HIV risk group in Western Europe," EMCDDA spokesman Mr Lucas Wiessing told a news conference to mark international anti-drugs day.
Needle exchange programs set up to prevent HIV infection in member states have had less impact than hoped in slowing the spread of the deadly virus because in most cases not enough needles are distributed to drug users, according to EMCDDA.
The agency estimates up to 500 needles are distributed or exchanged per each intravenous drug user in the United Kingdom each year, while in the remaining member states less than 100 needles are exchanged or distributed per injecting drug user.
AFP