Prevention of HIV transmission among intravenous drug users.

摘要

Somehowthe Article by Bradley Mathers and colleagues (March 20, p 1014) left us with a sense of despair. Strategically, preventing the spread of HIV among intravenous drug users (IDUs) through safe consumption and decreased viral load holds no mystery. Technically, effective and proven methods are clear:increased access to sterile syringes, prevention messages encouraging IDUs to use their own material, and wider access to methadone, buprenorphine, and antiretroviral treatments.Yet experts can do little when confronted with governmental inertia. In Russia, opiate substitution treatment is currently illegal. In south and southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa, vast populations of IDUs are being infected and are infecting their sexual partners, promoting HIV spread and vertical transmission.