Harm Reduction

New Frontiers in Harm Reduction. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? Unfortunately, after attending this "symposia," I was making the same complaints I've been making throughout this conference. Perhaps I've made some poor choices, but I've been underwhelmed by the depth and creativity of presentations. Some of the valuable chestnuts I've "learned" here: Prevention is good. Stigma is bad. Harm reduction is good. Punishing injection drug users is bad. Hmm. It really...um...makes you think?

But I left this symposia (I still can't figure out why we use the plural here) on Harm Reduction a little bit more angry. Two of the speakers basically stood up and said, My program is great, My organization is doing something really new and important, I work really hard, Here's a photo of us working. Yes, she actually shared a photo of her staff sitting around a table in her 12-minute presentation.

She made what felt to me a stark distinction between harm reduction and prevention. I don't understand the value in this. Isn't prevention based on the principles of harm reduction? Isn't harm reduction... prevention?  read more »

Length: 5:33 Every time I hear Corinne Carey talk, I start dreaming of going to law school. Now with the New York Civil Liberties Union, Corinne founded the Harm Reduction Law Project at the , and followed that work with stints at Human Rights Watch and  fighting against the criminalization of people who use drugs. In this interview, Corinne talks about how legal aid services are crucial for ensuring that people who use drugs can benefit from HIV prevention and treatment services, and her work in the USA and overseas to embed lawyers in harm reduction agencies.

The following was originally posted on PHR's Blog AIDS. It's not over, about the Iranian HIV/AIDS Docs I posted about recently here.  

 

The most moving aspect of AIDS 2008 so far for me has been meeting so many of Kamiar and Arash Alaei’s friends and colleagues—all of whom have stories and kind words about the two physicians detained in Iran and are hoping to see the brothers again soon. Today, one of their colleagues, Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, gave an important plenary speech about her work on harm reduction—and in front of thousands of conference participants, made an impassioned plea to the Iranian Government to free Arash and Kamiar. To sustained applause, we walked in front of the plenary carrying signs with photos of the brothers and the URL for the petition to the government of Iran, IranFreeTheDocs.org. We passed out thousands of buttons and stickers, which are now all over the conference.  read more »

Length: 8:22 Beginning in the middle of June, the Cambodian government has swept up hundreds of people who use drugs, sex workers, and homeless people following passage of a USA-backed anti-human trafficking law.  People have been detained without charges in Khmer Rouge era camps in appalling conditions, without access to HIV and TB medications and other healthcare. Soon after the crisis started, Korsang, a Phnom Penh based harm reduction organization, went 24-7 to provide housing, nutrition, medical care and harm reduction services to scores of people in danger of detention.  In this interview, Korsang co-founder Holly Bradford talks about what’s going on, and what Korsang needs to keep people safe. You can help Korsang by donating through the Chicago Recovery Alliance (be sure to write Korsang in the ‘Designation’ line).  read more »

My colleagues at PHR have been busy in the press room at the AIDS Conference this year.  On Monday, they released “The Right to Health and Health Workforce Planning: A Guide for Government Officials, NGOs, Health Workers and Development Partners.”   According to the press release, the guide already has its fans.

I  find this document impressive, accessible, and groundbreaking. When one reads the document one can’t but be amazed by the intense and intensive, broad and detailed consultations that have gone into this unique publication. It should be a pocket book to every health professional, a bible to every Minister of Health, a guiding star for every health and human rights expert and novice.

—Maxwell V. Madzikanga, Senior HIV/AIDS Researcher to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health  read more »

Length: 5:45 There’s a lot to celebrate about progress on HIV prevention and treatment in communities around the world. That can’t be said about HIV in prisons. Thousands are sick or dying, and governments – and the AIDS movement – have in most cases utterly failed to protect prisoners. Ralf Jürgens, the founding director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and a longtime advocate for prisoners’ rights, speaks in this interview about the need to refocus attention on prison HIV, and recent progress on prison harm reduction programming.

Kormix, a hip-hop group of youth from Cambodia, performed today at the opening ceremony of the Global Village. Their rhymes in English and Khmer talk about the rough conditions of street life, like drug use and the vulnerability to HIV. In a workshop before the event, Andrew Hunter of the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers explained that the teens in Kormix are themselves affected by a UNAIDS policy that the network is protesting. The policy labels them as "street youth at risk for trafficking."

The Network has an excellent overview of how this policy hurts sex workers and youth. Also check out Darby Hickey's previous post about sex workers rights in Cambodia. She speaks also about the new Cambodian law that is hurting sex workers and HIV prevention.  read more »

Length: 11:16 With his partner and a beautiful new baby daughter, Mauro Guarinieri relocated to Hanoi at the beginning of 2008 to take up a position as an HIV advisor with Constella Futures Group. In the two decades before that, Mauro fought for drug user and PLWH rights, becoming chairman of the European AIDS Treatment Group, chair of the global board of GNP+, and working for a couple years at the Open Society Institute. In this interview, Mauro talks about the shape of Vietnam’s HIV epidemic, and the government’s fits-and-starts effort to introduce harm reduction programs while still relying largely on prison, coerced detox, and other means of social control aimed at those most at risk of infection.

Length: 12:19

 

 

Dr. Konstantin Lezhentsev, a longtime leader in promoting HIV care and treatment for people who use drugs, is director of treatment at the All Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV, where he oversees programs integrating HIV treatment with drug and TB services.

With more than 1.5% adult HIV prevalence, Ukraine has been hardest hit by the Eastearn European HIV epidemic, largely driven by injection drug use. The partly good news is that Ukrainian civil society and government have made great progress on building a strong network of harm reduction services and providing HIV care and treatment to thousands of people with Global Fund and state funding.

At the same time, the state of HIV services in the prison sy stem is appalling, decent quality drug treatment is more the exception than the rule, and TB is killing far too many. On August 2, I talked with Konstantin about what's working in Ukraine, what's not, and what the Network is prioritizing in coming months.

 

 

by Annelies Mesman, youth rapporteur and CHOICE board member, and Vanessa Brocato

“Universal Action Now!”— more than 300 young people from around the world gathered for 3 days before the International AIDS Conference to empower each other to move beyond rhetoric to concrete action.  As part of Mexico YouthForce, young leaders led discussions on not only HIV and AIDS prevention, treatment and care but also the range of sexual and reproductive health and rights and social justice issues that intersect with and complicate responses to AIDS.

“Hope is here.  Adults don’t know the challenges we are facing; they are guessing.  You can never be successful if you design any program for young people without them.  This is for all the adults here: Let the Mexico YouthForce speak!” said Igor Mocorro, a 21 year old from the Philippines.

Prior to this event, 125 young people from 46 countries worked together, communicating virtually, to create key messages of the Mexico YouthForce.  Throughout the Banamex, posters will carry the following resulting slogans:

•    Rights: we have a right to comprehensive, accurate information and services to protect our sexual health.
•    Respect: for our realities, our experiences, and our contributions.  read more »