AIDS Panel: Needle Program Needed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton's AIDS advisers unanimously expressed
no confidence in the administration's commitment to reducing the spread of
AIDS, accusing officials of playing politics with people's lives.

``The administration's current policy on needle-exchange programs threatens
the public health, and directly contradicts current scientific evidence,''
said the resolution approved Tuesday by the Presidential Council on
HIV/AIDS.

It was the harshest criticism yet from the panel, whose members are furious
that the administration has not allowed federal funding for programs giving
drug addicts clean needles in exchange for dirty ones that may be
contaminated with the deadly HIV virus.

``Our patience is exhausted,'' said the panel's chairman, Dr. Scott Hitt,
who treats patients with HIV and AIDS in Los Angeles.

Hitt estimated that tens of thousands of new HIV infections could be
prevented through needle-exchange programs. More than half of all people who
become infected with HIV catch the deadly virus through contaminated needles
or sex with injecting drug users -- or are children born to infected
addicts.

``Tragically, we must conclude that it is a lack of political will, not
scientific evidence, that is creating this failure to act,'' the council
said Tuesday in a letter to Clinton.

Using taxpayer money to buy needles for addicts has become a politically
touchy issue, with conservatives arguing that these programs send the wrong
message.

One council member, Terje Anderson of Colorado Springs, Colo., spoke of his
past heroin use and argued that availability of needles is no more likely to
cause drug use than matches are to cause smoking.

``The question should be, `Do you care about the lives of people like me?'''
said Anderson, who no longer uses drugs but is HIV positive. ``Are you
willing to take steps -- perhaps politically risky or unpopular steps -- in
order to save lives?'''

Federal law allows funding of needle-exchange programs, but only if the
Department of Health and Human Services concludes that they are effective in
reducing the spread of HIV without increasing drug use.

HHS Secretary Donna Shalala has already agreed with leading scientists that
the programs are effective in fighting HIV. But she says she is still
reviewing drug use data, promising to make the decision on good science.

``We will operate on the best information available,'' agency spokeswoman
Laurie Boeder said Tuesday.

Council members say the proof is already there, citing six government-funded
reports, including an independent group of experts convened by the National
Institutes of Health.

``Does needle exchange promote drug use? A preponderance of evidence shows
either no change or decreased drug use,'' the NIH concluded more than a year
ago, saying the ban on funding for these programs will lead to ``many
thousands of unnecessary deaths.''

But Shalala is still waiting for studies by drug abuse experts and is still
reviewing the data already available, Boeder said. The results of studies
will not be available for several months, she said, adding, ``There is no
timetable'' for announcing a decision.

Council members accused Shalala of letting politics dictate policy, but they
stopped short of calling for her resignation, as some members have
suggested. They have also rejected suggestions that they resign in protest.

More than 80 needle exchanges, paid for by private, state or local money,
already operate in the United States, but AIDS activists say expanding them
will require federal funding. More importantly, Hitt said, more private
money would be generated if the government gave its endorsement.

``Many people in this country and the world are looking to the secretary to
say the science is there,'' he said. ``It's time for her to come out and say
where she stands.''