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19th December 2008
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IHRA internship opportunity in London: Global State of Harm Reduction web-based tool (January – April 2009, 2-3 days a week)
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In May 2008, IHRA published a report entitled the Global State of Harm Reduction 2008: Mapping the Response to Drug-Related HIV and Hepatitis C Epidemics. A web-based tool is now being developed which will make the information gathered for the report more widely accessible. As well as displaying global and regional information, the web-based tool will also allow browsers to access the latest national data on harm reduction.
The internship entails:
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- Finalising the design of the web pages in liaison with IHRA’s Research Analyst
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- Populating the web pages (uploading maps, tables, PDF files and inputting data)
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- Maintaining electronic records of all information references
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Experience and skills required:
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- Web design/development experience and familiarity with electronic content management systems
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- Knowledge of and enthusiasm for harm reduction
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- Experience dealing with large datasets
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- Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail
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- Ability to work to deadlines
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Ability to work to deadlines This internship provides an excellent opportunity to become familiar with the most up to date global research on harm reduction and to contribute to the work of a leading international NGO in the field. There will be a small stipend available for the internship. If you are interested in applying please send a cover email, including details of your availability, along with your CV to Annie Kuch by Wednesday 7th January 2009.
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15th December 2008
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AIDS2010: Call for Committee Members and Speakers
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The XVIII International AIDS Conference will be held in July 2010 in Vienna, Austria and is the largest international meeting on HIV in the world. Every two years, this event hosts around 25,000 participants – including people living with HIV and people who use drugs – who meet to discuss the latest developments in the global fight against HIV and to assess progress and identify future priorities. The conference – ‘AIDS2010’ – is organised in partnership between the International AIDS Society (IAS), international community partners, and regional partners. It is co-sponsored by the European Commission, local Austrian partners, and UNAIDS.
The planning process for 2010 has already begun, and a call has been issued for applications to join one of the main programme bodies – the Community, Leadership and Accountability, or Scientific Programme Committees. These voluntary groups play a central role in defining and evolving the conference programme, and community involvement is an important part of this process. At the same time, the conference organisers are also asking for expressions of interest from those who would like to speak at AIDS2010.
Each Committee will contain around fourteen people and there is no payment for members (although travel to attend meetings will be covered). The role is a demanding one, so applicants should be prepared to dedicate considerable time to the task – including attending meetings, participating in teleconferences, frequently corresponding via emails, reviewing documentation, planning work, and consulting with broader community constituencies. Applicants are asked to complete an application form (in English) and return it to AIDS2010community@icaso.org by the 13th January 2009.
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4th December 2008
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Conference Website Now Available in Thai
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We are pleased to announce that the conference website for Harm Reduction 2009 is now in Thai as well as English – as most of the sessions will be at the conference itself. The Thai pages can be accessed by visiting www.ihraconferences.net and clicking the Thai flag at the top of the page.
The website itself contains all of the information you should need about the conference – including delegate fees, registration, the programme, the venue, travel and accommodation, the conference partners and the supporting organisations. It also features a developing archive of the previous IHRA conferences – including presentations, photos and links where possible. The website is updated on a regular basis right up to the conference itself, so please visit it whenever possible.
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Harm Reduction 2009 is scheduled to take place from the 20th to the 23rd April 2009 at the Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. This is IHRA’s 20th international conference, and these events have been held around the world each year since 1990. They have become key events for the harm reduction field and have helped to put harm reduction on the map and to coordinate advances, innovations, evidence and advocacy in this field.
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4th December 2008
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Update from the MENAHRA Network
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Throughout 2008, the Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Network (MENAHRA) has been working hard to achieve visibility both regionally and globally. It has launched a series of newsletters which highlight news and events from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as well as news and features from other networks and organisations that work on harm reduction. The newsletters have also featured compelling testimonials from former drug users and outreach workers.
At the international level, MENAHRA attended the Beyond 2008 event in Vienna in July 2008 and the XVII International AIDS conference in Mexico in August 2008. These meetings allowed MENAHRA to promote its work, share the issues facing harm reduction in the MENA region, and work closely with numerous other NGOs – including the other harm reduction networks during a ‘Network of Networks’ meeting in Mexico. MENAHRA was also well represented during an important event in Iran – the first regional seminar on harm reduction – where it worked closely with both NGOs and governmental organisations on issues around HIV, drug use and harm reduction. Also in 2008, the MENAHRA Steering Committee finalised the network’s constitution, which comprises of twelve regulation articles and is available on www.menahra.org.
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MENAHRA has also been working hard to support and fund harm reduction projects in the region. A call for proposals was issued in September 2008, and funding has already been approved for harm reduction organisations in Pakistan, Iran and Tunisia. More recently, plans have been made to submit a multi-country proposal to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). The proposal will address HIV prevention, treatment and care among people who use drugs – including injecting drug users – through a harm reduction approach. MENAHRA has called upon all interested stakeholders – particularly civil society organisations intending to implement harm reduction activities – to submit their own organisational proposals for review and integration into this regional bid.
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4th December 2008
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‘Druglink International’ Now Available Online
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The second of two pilot issues of ‘Druglink International’ is now available online. The magazine – produced by DrugScope in association with the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) – aims to move international debate beyond the simplicities of the ‘war against drugs’ by presenting the health, social care, human rights and environmental issues that are often hidden from view.
This pilot issue highlights the plight of people who use drugs in Cambodia – where a 'street cleansing operation' in Phnom Penh has seen drug users locked up in detention camps following arrest – and Georgia, where the Government's drug treatment system means that people who use drugs are more likely to be fined than receive any kind of support.
The familiar territories of Colombia and Afghanistan are also featured. As Colombia's Vice President tours the world warning cocaine users of their habit's ecological impact, questions are asked of his government's latest move to tackle coca supply – an intense manual crop eradication programme carried out by the country's rural poor. Meanwhile, amidst rising drug use in Kabul, Druglink International visits the city's only treatment centre for women battling not only drug addiction, but also the shame Afghan society attaches to it.
This is a particularly important time for international drug policy because next March sees a special meeting of the United Nations to review its ten year drug strategy. In 1998, the Special Session expressed an aim for a ‘drug-free world’ and a commitment to eradicate coca, opium and cannabis by 2008.
The editorial staff at DrugScope are keen to receive any feedback on this magazine in order to guide decisions about future issues and features. Please send your comments and thoughts to Harry Shapiro or, for more information about this magazine, please contact Andrew McNicoll.
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1st December 2008
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Youth RISE Re-Launches Website for World AIDS Day
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Youth RISE – the international youth-driven harm reduction network – has re-launched its website for World AIDS Day on December 1st 2008. The new website features stories of young people affected by substance use and HIV, as well as factsheets on the linkages between HIV and injection drug use (available in five languages).
December 1st is a key day for HIV advocates around the world, but the voices of marginalised groups such as young people and people who use drugs are too often left out of the dialogue. Young people are significantly affected by HIV and represent almost 40% of all new infections worldwide. It is essential that the links between young people, injection drug use and HIV/AIDS are explored, understood and communicated. UNICEF – the United Nations Children's Fund – reports that injection drug use amongst street children is as high as 51% in some countries such as Russia, and that the initial age of injection in the Ukraine is 13-15 years of age. Recently, the World Health Organization conducted a study with over 6,000 people who inject drugs, and found that between 72% and 96% of those young people stated that they began injecting before 25 years of age.
Young substance users, sex workers and street-involved youth face significant barriers when accessing education, health and social services due. Youth RISE aims to raise awareness of these issues. Access to harm reduction services is something that cannot be denied for young people if we wish to combat HIV/AIDS.
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1st December 2008
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Switzerland Votes for Heroin Prescription Programme
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In a national referendum, over two thirds of Swiss voters have supported a cutting-edge harm reduction policy of prescribing pharmaceutical diamorphine (heroin) to people who use drugs as a permanent substitution treatment. The scheme includes injectable medications to be used under professional supervision. The vote was one of a series of groundbreaking referendums to decide the national policy on illegal drugs.
The Swiss heroin programme has operated since 1994 and is delivered from over 20 centres nationwide, with about 3,000 registered patients. Services include supervised consumption, counselling, basic medical support, and referrals to alternative interventions where appropriate. The referendum result means that Switzerland will become the first country to formally incorporate this evidence-based approach into its Government policy.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Switzerland had one of the highest rates of heroin addiction in Europe and rising rates of HIV and hepatitis infection. From this point, the Swiss adopted harm reduction approaches to tackle this issue – first introducing needle exchanges and then opening supervised drug consumption facilities. The intervention is aimed at long-term heroin users who have failed on previous treatments and interventions – according to Dr. Christoph Buerki (from a clinic in Bern), “we are aiming at a group of people where everything else has failed”.
Heroin prescription has been in place – albeit experimentally – for over a decade and has always courted controversy, pitting moralistic arguments against scientific ones. The mindset of some of those against the programme is demonstrated by this quote from Sabine Geissbuhler of ‘Parents Against Drugs’: “I would never, never, put my children into a heroin prescription programme. What kind of freedom is that? I'd rather they were dead”.
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1st December 2008
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WHO-SEARO Launch New Guidelines
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In preparation for World AIDS Day on December 1st 2008, the World Health Organization Regional Office for South-East Asia (WHO-SEARO) has launched two new comprehensive and practical guides to promote harm reduction across the region – covering the management and delivery of substitution therapies (or ‘medically assisted’ treatments) for opiate dependence and the management of the common health problems of people who use drugs.
The ‘Operational Guidelines for the Management of Opioid Dependence in the South-East Asia Region’ aim to assist physicians and drug treatment professionals in establishing and delivering evidence-based, good quality, effective opiate treatment services in South-East Asia – where there are between 3.4 and 5.6 million people who inject drugs. According to IHRA’s Global State of Harm Reduction 2008 report, opiate substitution treatments are currently available in 63 countries around the world (covering around 950,000 people) – including South-East Asian countries such as India, Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal. There are also plans to introduce these treatments in the Maldives and Bangladesh.
The second guide – entitled ‘Management of Common Health Problems of Drug Users in the South-East Asia Region’ – aims to support primary care workers from outside of the drug treatment field, including doctors and nurses and other healthcare professionals. It provides information on the specific needs and harms associated with drug use in order to facilitate better services and improved access. The guide includes information about drugs, drug use in Asia, drug injection, common injuries and infections, universal precautions and comprehensive service packages. The annexes also include principles for establishing services for people who use drugs, common operational issues, and sample materials.
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1st December 2008
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The Connections Project Announce First Conference
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The first European conference from the Connections Project will take place from the 25th to the 27th March 2009 in Krakow, Poland. The event – entitled ‘Integrated Responses to Drugs and Infections Across European Criminal Justice Systems’ – will be of interest to professionals, policy makers and researchers in the field of police, prisons, health and criminal justice.
The ‘Connections’ project was launched in Autumn 2007 and is managed by the European Institute of Social Services (EISS) at the University of Kent. The three-year project is co-funded by the European Commission Public Health Programme in order to focus on responses to drugs and related infections in criminal justice systems. This initiative is building on the work of its predecessor – the European Network on Drugs and Infection Prison in Prison (ENDIPP) – and will tackle the challenges of providing drug treatment and infection prevention within the criminal justice system as a whole (and not just prisons).
The conference will cover issues including reducing drug use and infections in police and prison custody, alternatives to imprisonment, continuity of care before and after release from custody, effective drug treatment and harm reduction in prisons. There will be presentations by European and international experts, including Lord David Ramsbotham (House of Lords, UK), Professor Kate Dolan (National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Australia), Professor Dwayne Simpson (Texas Institute of Behavioral Research, USA), Ralf Jürgens (Canada) and Professor Krzysztof Krajewski (Jagiellonian University, Poland). There will also be a master class on improving quality and continuity of treatment in custody. There are discounts available for those who register before December 31st. For more information, please visit www.connectionsproject.eu/conference2009.
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