HIV rates to decrease in Eastern Europe only if access to harm reduction services among women who use drugs is scaled-up

On the eve of the World AIDS Day, the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) calls for the urgent need to scale-up harm reduction services in Eastern Europe for women who use drugs. HIV prevalence among women drug users continues to rapidly increase, and if access to harm reduction services including opioid substitution treatment and needle and syringe programs is not dramatically scaled-up during the next 12 months, Eastern Europe won’t be able to reach the Millennium Development Goals on HIV and will remain the only region in the world where HIV incidence rates continue to grow.

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