To the Editor:

Re "Heroin Carries AIDS to a Region in Siberia" (front page, April
24): H.I.V. infection in Russia and its neighbors is fueled almost
entirely by injected-drug use. These countries now face the
devastating damage done to Africa and parts of Southeast Asia by the
global AIDS epidemic. But there is a small window of opportunity to
act before the epidemic outpaces the capacity to control it.

To do so, more national decision-makers, foreign aid agencies and
nongovernment organizations must provide financial and policy support
for pragmatic harm-reduction strategies.

We have the capability: needle exchanges and methadone therapy are
effective public health interventions.

ARYEH NEIER
Pres., Open Society Institute
New York, April 26, 2000