PRISON AUTHORITIES PUSHED TO GIVE NEEDLES TO ADDICTS

AIDS researchers are calling on the Correctional Service of Canada to
make sterile syringes freely available in prisons for pilot studies
to try to curb the spread of HIV among drug-using inmates.

The risk of contracting the virus is associated with imprisonment
from Thailand to Canada, researchers from the British Columbia Centre
for Excellence in HIV/AIDS write in the journal Lancet today.

They say the problem is made worse because accepted
disease-prevention methods, such as needle exchanges, are rarely
available to inmates.

"There is an urgent need to ensure that standards of HIV prevention
in prisons are consistent with the best available evidence and the
standards outlined in international guidelines," say the researchers.

Co-author Thomas Kerr said in an interview that the fastest growing
HIV epidemic in many parts of the world is among intravenous drug
users, who are frequently in and out of prison. And there is mounting
evidence from Canada and elsewhere that prisons are incubators for the disease.

"We have found evidence locally, which is consistent with what people
have found in other countries, that incarceration is associated with
HIV infection, that drug use occurs in prisons and a lot of high-risk
behaviour such as syringe exchange happens," says Kerr. "It's a very
dangerous dynamic."

Inmates interviewed for one recent study by B.C. HIV researchers
reported seeing syringes go through more than 30 people's hands.

Corrections Canada is well aware it has a problem. And it is taking
steps to prevent the spread of infection by providing inmates with
condoms and sterile tattooing equipment and drug treatment.

But Kerr says more needs to be done, such as pilot projects to assess
the use of needle exchanges behind prison walls. Needle exchanges are
widely used to prevent the spread of HIV in city and community settings.