Harm Reduction News: Milestones

The Fall 2003 issue of Harm Reduction News, the newsletter of the International Harm Reduction Development Program (IHRD), is dedicated to milestones, those critical markers that can serve as indicators of progress—or frustration. They are the signposts that trigger our celebrations and remind us of the painful impediments to change. One step forward, one step back.

First the bad news. Injection drug use and HIV rates in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are still skyrocketing. Conflict, poverty, dislocation, and hopelessness have created a tinderbox in which the AIDS epidemic burns quickly and with devastating consequences. From the outset, the harm reduction community has struggled to contain the destruction, but it continues to face three major challenges: scale, stigma, and scarcity.

The good news? Harm reduction has achieved a foothold in almost every country in the region. First-time replacement therapy pilot programs will be starting soon in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The burgeoning activist movement in the region has never been stronger. Drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS are spearheading diverse self-help, treatment, and advocacy efforts in record numbers. The harm reduction and human rights communities have made important linkages in the fight against draconian drug policies. And the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria has awarded unprecedented funding to 16 countries in throughout the region to help prevent and treat HIV.

The publication is available in PDF form in both English and Russian. Both PDFs are attached below.

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