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Society and WelfareYunnan passes new AIDS policy; will provide clean needles to drug usersFrom January 2004, injecting drug users in the Gejiu City, Yunnan province, can pick up clean needles at local AIDS information centre. This is possibly the first needle exchange programme in mainland China. Chinese Central TV (CCTV) today broadcast a report claiming that clean needle distribution will soon be duplicated soon cities in the same province such as Kunming, Dehong and Ruili. The project has been dubbed the “clean needle exchange project”, and is based on the policy set in the “Yunnan Province HIV/AIDS Control Mechanism” which also includes a methadone programme. There is no denying that these measures activities come into conflict with traditional views in China, and have an impact on both public safety and social stability. Vice-director of the Chinese Ministry of Health Wang Longde said that his ministry had already come to an agreement with the Ministry of Public Security. Last February, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Security, and State Department of Drug Administration jointly issued a temporary protocol for community drug detox and Methadone replacement therapy pilot sites, and established eight methadone replacement pilot sites in five provinces. Wang Longde cited the State Council’s “Recommendations for Strengthening HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Work”, as a policy breakthrough and argued that the new measures will be effective. He said that Methadone substitute therapy had “been used abroad for a long time in… Thailand, and HK SAR…with extremely good results…[T]hese measures will control the spread of the epidemic and at the same time help to create conditions for social stability.” ------------- From China News Service, 7 April 2004 |