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)