A potential step back on AIDS

A proposal before Congress to permanently ban federal funding or
endorsement of cleanneedle programs as an AIDSprevention strategy puts
politics and rhetoric ahead of science and common sense. It should be
defeated.

Five years ago Congress imposed a provisional ban on cleanneedle programs,
pending certification and assurances by the Health and Human Services
secretary that first, such programs were helpful in reducing HIV infections
among intravenous drug users, and second, that they did not foster addiction.

In February of this year, HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala did just that: She
submitted to Congreess a compendium of all major scientific evaluations of
needle exchanges which unanimously indicated that they help reduct the
rate of HIV infections without promoting drug use.

The next logical step would have been for the Clinton administration to lift
the ban on federal funding on cleanneedle programs. And that's probably why
Republican Reps. Tom A. Coburn of Odlahoma and J. Dennis Hastert of suburban
Aurora attached an amendment to a House appropriations bill that would make
the funding ban permanent, regardless of proof of their usefulness.

The latest round of opposition relies partly on two recent Canadian studies
that seem to run counter to the flood of research supporting the needle
exchanges. Or do they? The Vancouver researchers, for example, do not
advocate elimination of the exchanges but instead argue for a more
comprehensive set of measures, including drug counseling. And nowhere does
either of the studies suggest that needle exchanges encourage drug addiction
one of Hastert's chief concerns.

Other facts, however, remain indisputable. Today in Illinois, 41 percent of
the HIV infections are directlty or indirectly attribuatble to contaminated
needles. Saddest of all are the infected babies, 90 percent of whom
inherited the virus from their drugaddicted mothers.

AIDS is a monster that won't be slain by any one bullet. But needleexchange
programs, combined with counseling and rehabilitation programs, have been
proven time and again to be a key part of an effective AIDS prevention strategy

The CoburnHastert amendment was approved by the House, but failed in the
Senate. It's now headed for a conference committee which is as far as it
deserves to go.