The Mekong Region

HEROIN LEADS TO SOARING HIV RATE

VIETNAM -- In Hanoi An ever-increasing flow of heroin through the north is
being blamed for a HIV infections that now span the whole country.

United Nations officials yesterday confirmed that the virus that leads to
AIDS had now been registered in all Vietnam's 61 provinces since it was
first detected in Ho Chi Minh City eight years ago.

Among the latest cases is one involving a heroin user from Ha Giang in the
far north - until now the only HIV-free province. The sufferer may have
caught the disease elsewhere, however.

Recent reports from the National AIDS Committee have alarmed a leadership
that must now grapple with rising heroin addiction as well as HIV
infections that could reach up to 160,000 people by 2000, according to
revised figures widely seen as conservative.

The figure has been projected from confirmed infections that now total
11,350 people, of whom 1,037 have died.

"The number of infected people is on the increase despite our efforts to
fight against it," said Communist Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, the
country's most powerful leader, during a recent meeting. "HIV/ AIDS is one
of the country's most dangerous enemies."

Health workers and police privately express doubts about the possibility of
controlling the problem given the apparent thirst for injected heroin among
large numbers of unemployed men in the northern provinces close to both
Laos and China.

Lang Son, Quanh Ninh and Haiphong have all reported surges in heroin
addiction and HIV infection in recent months, despite public drives against
both.

Intravenous drug use is thought be behind at least 65 per cent of
infections - a rate higher than in Cambodia and Thailand.

"Heroin is ensuring all our efforts to combat this disease are failing,"
one health worker warned.

"Most drug addicts can get their own needles but they just don't seem to
care."

Despite its proximity to the Golden Triangle, northern Vietnam was largely
untouched by heroin until three years ago, when syndicates began moving in
cut-rate supplies from Laos.

Checked-by: Richard Lake