U.S. Governmental Support of Needle-Exchange Could Help Lower HIV Incidents

Many groups and people, including the NAACP and the director of NIAID, are appealing the ban on federal funding of needle-exchange programs. This ban has been in effect for 20 years. People against this idea point out that it supports intravenous drug use. People appealing are doing what is most effective. 30% of new HIV cases in the U.S. are caused by injection drug use. There are existing needle-exchange programs but their funding is unstable. The campaign for the appeal occurred on February 7th, the National Black HIV/AIDS awareness day. Even though black people made up 13% of the U.S. population in 2005, they contributed to half of the new HIV/AIDS cases.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802070749.html

Jasmeen