Junkie Pneumonía (from page one) the 19...

Junkie Pneumonia (from page one)

the 1970s: (1) researchers would have discovered the HIV virus and its routes of transmission many years before they did; (2) this earlier disco very would have saved many lives now lost; (3) no one would have wasted energy on inane and homophobic concepts such as GRDD (Gay-Related Immuno-Deficiency - the first name given to the syndrome now called AIDS); (4) otherwise rational researchers would not have investigated "the gay lifestyle" as a potential causal factor, (5) the media would not have been able to label AIDS as "the gay disease," and (6) increased antigay violence would not have resulted.

Here's how I imagine all of this would have benefited people who shoot drugs: not at all.

More than a decade into the AIDS crisis the injection drug using population first devastated by that crisis remains critically underserved by AIDS prevention programs. The reasons for this are precisely the reasons that junkie pneumonia was ignored in the first place: racism, disregard for the lives of people who shoot drugs, and an ill-disguised war on the poor masquerading as a war on drugs.

Injection drug users are the second largest group of people with AIDS. The majority of women with AIDS and nearly half of all people of color with AIDS are injection drug users or sexual partners of injection drug users. The majority of children with AIDS (over 90% of whom are children of color) are born to injection drug users or their partners. While rates of HIV transmission are declining among gay men, those rates are rising among people who shoot drugs. It is estimated that 50% of the 1 1 2 new AIDS cases expected weekly in Michigan will be related to injection drug use. This is a public health emergency which, like most such emergencies, primarily affects women and people of color.

Among people who shoot drugs, HIV is transmitted primarily through the sharing of injection equipment. Research has shown that needle exchange programs (which provide sterile needles in exchange for used needles) are the most effective way to reduce needle sharing. The common belief that such programs "condone" drug use and lead to its increase is not supported by any evidence. In fact, some needle exchange programs have reported a decrease in frequency of injection among their clients. Also, as the National Commission on AIDS notes, "outreach programs which operate needle exchanges and distribute bleach not only help to control the spread of HIV, but also refer many individuals to treatment programs."

Nationally, Bush's "War on Drugs" mentality has kept the federal government from adopting the recommendations of its own National Commission on AIDS, which supports the removal of legal barriers to the purchase of sterile injection equipment. Locally, this mentality, combined with the typical institutional disregard for the lives of people who shoot drugs, has led the Washtenaw County Health Department to drag its feet on bleach distribution and refuse to even consider needle exchange. Michigan' s drug paraphernalia law can be construed to prohibit distribution of sterile injection equipment to people who shoot drugs.

As is the case in many cities across the U.S ., AIDS activists in Ann Arbor have stepped in to provide this critical public health service. Since December, AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) has run a limited street-based AIDS prevention program which includes needle exchange. This spring, ACT UP plans to expand its Ann Arbor program and to establish a similar program in Ypsilanti.

But needles are not enough. Injection drug users need AIDS prevention education materials (including both safer sex and safer drug use information) which address the reality of their lives. Medical workers and others who provide AIDS-related services must increase their attention to the particular needs of injection drug users with AIDS. Researchers must include injection drug users in their studies of experimental AIDS treatments. Since addiction to injection drugs is not a healthy way to live, drug rehabilitation and other health care must be made available on demand. Community-based, non-judgmental drug use prevention programs must be instituted every where. Most importantly, we must all work to address the poverty, racism and sexism which lead people to use drugs in self-destructive ways.

This is an emergency. Our lives are your lives. Their lives are our lives. ACT UP. Pattrice Maurer is a member of ACT UP Ann Arbor, which meets at 7:30 pm on Thursday nights at the Baker-Mandela Center in Room 3 of U-M's East Engineering Building.