GRIM ANNIVERSARY BRINGS NEW HEALTH EFFORT

Attempts to reduce the incidence of HIV in New Jersey are being
highlighted by public health advocates and agencies, as June marks 25
years since federal officials first reported the discovery of a
condition that would come to be known as Auto-Immune Deficiency
Syndrome, or AIDS.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced new
guidelines that would require HIV tests to become a standard part of
physical examinations. Federal health officials expect the
guidelines, which would apply to all Americans between the ages of 13
and 64, to be issued this summer and become "as common as a cholesterol check."

Approximately 250,000 people across the United States are living with
HIV and are unaware of it, according to the National Association of
People With AIDS. Many people who are HIV-positive do not experience
symptoms for years.

Waiting for the lab results of a blood test that draws from the arm -
currently the most commonly used method to detect HIV - can take up
to two weeks.

"There is a lot of anxiety that goes along with a blood test," said
Alicia Gambino, director of public education for the New Jersey
Poison Control Center, an agency that runs the New Jersey AIDS/STD Hotline.

A finger-stick HIV test - now being offered free of charge and
anonymously at locations throughout the state - produces results in
20 minutes and is increasingly being used because of its fast turn-around time.

"People are finding it a lot easier on themselves - 20 minutes of
waiting, as opposed to a week or two that could seem like three years
to some people," Gambino said. Testing site locations can be obtained
24 hours a day seven days a week through the New Jersey AIDS/STD
hotline at (800) 624-2377.

Meanwhile, the Drug Policy Alliance New Jersey is working to create
syringe exchanges - locations where injection drug users can obtain
sterile syringes and return dirty ones - to prevent the spread of
HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases.

"These are basically full-service public health interventions that
offer people referrals to drug treatment and other social services,"
said Roseanne Scotti, director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

There are 160 syringe exchange programs in 39 states. Prevention
Point Philadelphia is subcontracted by the city to run exchanges five
days a week in various locales. New York City has 12 exchanges, run
by various non-profit public health agencies.

New Jersey has the fifth-highest number of adult HIV cases in the
country, the third-highest rate of pediatric cases and the highest
proportion of infected women, according to the alliance. The agency
reported 45 percent of all HIV cases in New Jersey were caused by the
sharing of contaminated syringes - twice the national average.

Syringe access bills have been introduced in the state Legislature
since 1993, but failed to pass each time. Atlantic City and the city
of Camden passed ordinances seeking to establish exchanges in June
2004, but courts held that the cities would need state authorization.

"It's a very stigmatized issue," Scotti said. "Drug use is something
many people don't want to think about or deal with. Syringe access is
really the last frontier in HIV prevention."