"SPRINGFIELD STRUGGLES TO HALT HEROIN-DRIVEN AIDS OUTBREAK"

In a city with one of the highest concentrations of new AIDS cases in
the United States, one man is seeking to make a difference. Volunteer
Charles Stokes is reaching out to his community of Springfield,
Massachusetts, passing out needle bleaching kits and advice to injection
drug users.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Springfield
ranks 11th in the nation in the rate of new AIDS cases, with an annual
rate of 34.5 new cases per 100,000 people.

As injection drug use becomes responsible for more new cases, AIDS
activists like Stokes and David Buchanan, an associate professor of
public health at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, have become
more adamant about the value of needle exchange programs.

In nearby Hartford, Connecticut, the city was able to cut its HIV
infection rate among addicts by 50 percent since the needle exchange
program was started eight years ago (?). But Springfield voted for a
state funded program exchange program for only two of its eight wards in
1998. However, due to a lack of city council representation, the vote
was later reversed for the exchange program in the two wards, and the
needle exchange approved by the city council in July 1998 was later
reconsidered and rejected. Currently, the city's only AIDS program
consists of its mobile outreach team, which includes one van, four paid
workers, and Stokes, unofficially. The majority of the $4.7 million in
state AIDS funds that Springfield receives goes directly to nonprofit
and community social-service groups.