Campaign against syringe sharing

Campaign against syringe sharing

JAKARTA (JP): Activists and doctors urged authorities to
intensify campaigns to raise public awareness about the dangers
of sharing hypodermic syringes.

The remarks were made in a seminar that revealed that
significant numbers of drug users carrying the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which could lead to the deadly
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), shared syringes.

The seminar on HIV/AIDS prevention among drug users was
jointly organized by the University of Indonesia's special group
on AIDS education, Pelita Ilmu Foundation and Cipto Mangunkusumo
General Hospital (RSCM).

RSCM hematologist Zoebairi Djoerban explained that at 22
degrees Celsius the HIV virus could thrive in the syringe for 42
days in at least 20 microliters of blood, while at 37 degrees
Celsius, the virus could survive for a week.

While stating that the decision to provide clean syringes to
drug users was a controversial one, he pointed out that, in other
countries, the practice had successfully reduced the spread of
the HIV virus and other fatal diseases like hepatitis B and C.

Used syringes, he added, could be reused if they were properly
sterilized.

"It can be done by soaking the used syringe in natrium
hypochlorite (bleach solution) or by boiling them for 20
minutes," he said. However, he was quick to add that boiling was
impractical, especially for addicts.

The Indonesia AIDS Society (MPAI) data for May 2001 recorded
that there were 1,954 new people with HIV/AIDS in 13 major cities
across the country, 412 of them drug users who acquired the virus
through sharing syringes.

The figure is far below the estimated national data, which
records some 1.3 million people in the country with HIV/AIDS.

"Our estimate is that 50 percent of the figure (in the
national data) were drug users, and 50 percent of those drug
users were infected through sharing syringes," said MPAI's first
chairman Suriadi Gunawan in his opening speech.

In last year's survey by Pelita Ilmu Foundation in Blok M, a
popular hang-out place in South Jakarta, 30 percent of young drug
users preferred syringes when using drugs. Of the 30 percent,
only 7 percent of them used new ones.

The survey also disclosed that the eight most popular
recreational drugs were, among other things, marijuana, Nipam
(flunitrazepan), ecstasy, cocaine and shabu-shabu (crystal
methamphetamine). (lup)