Preventing HIV among drug users
Turning his life around with harm reduction in Belarus
Read the story of Sergey, one of nearly 900 people enrolled in the Belarus Opioid Substitution Therapy Programme.
Harm reduction saves lives
On International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking UNAIDS highlights the many commitments made to protect the health and human rights of people who inject drugs.
Explaining harm reduction with hard hats, seatbelts and sunscreen
Fastening a seatbelt when driving, wearing a hard hat on a construction site and slapping on sunscreen when out in the sun all lessen potential harms from the risks being taken. This is how the Harm Reduction Action Center (HRAC), based on Colorado, United States of America, introduces the principles of harm reduction for drug use in a video entitled Harm Reduction 101.
Harm reduction programmes: saving lives among people who inject drugs
Harm reduction programmes are saving lives among people who inject drugs. Unfortunately, not everyone in need of such services has access to them.
Belarus: Reducing harm, preventing new HIV infections
The opioid substitution therapy programme in Belarus started in 2007. Today, it has grown to 19 sites across the country providing OST to nearly 900 people.
Stopping the rise of new HIV infections among people who inject drugs
As part of UNAIDS’ efforts to stop the rise of new HIV infections among people who inject drugs UNAIDS is taking an urgent message to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, as it meets in Vienna, Austria, for its sixtieth session. In a statement to the commission, UNAIDS warns of the staggering rise in HIV infections among people who inject drugs and notes that countries are failing to invest in and deliver effective strategies to address the growing problem.
Transforming lives through voluntary drug treatment
There are 4 million people who inject drugs in the Asia and the Pacific region—that’s one third of the people who inject drugs globally. This places the region at the forefront of the largest injecting drug problem in the world.
Viet Nam opens its first opioid substitution therapy service for prisoners
“In 2010, I participated in a study visit to learn about prison-based methadone programmes in Spain. Witnessing the positive impacts of the programme on prisoners as individuals and prisons as a whole, I reported the results and recommendations of the visit to the Ministry of Public Security,” said Nguyen Xuan Truong, Chief Prison Officer at Phu Son Prison. “It has been quite a wait since then, but I am happy that Phu Son is the first prison in Viet Nam to provide methadone services for...
Ukrainian Government to fully finance opioid substitution therapy
The Government of Ukraine has announced that in 2017 it will fully finance from its budget the national opioid substitution therapy programme for people who use drugs, a key population in Ukraine that is at higher risk of HIV infection. Approximately US$ 500 000 will be allocated to enable 8000 people who inject drugs to continue to access the therapy in 2017.
Investments in harm reduction programmes: the need to turn a global crisis into a global solution
The world has come a long way in providing harm reduction services to people who use drugs. Harm Reduction International (HRI) data from the past decade show that there is now some level of harm reduction programming in over half of the 158 countries with documented injecting drug use. Where in operation, harm reduction has dramatically improved and protected the health, well-being and human rights of people who use drugs.
