Rise in intravenous drug use poses threat

Following a steady increase in intravenous drug use by addicts in Kyrgyzstan over the past 10 years, an AIDS official on Wednesday warned that the situation could rapidly deteriorate unless proper measures were applied. “This is a very big danger,” the national manager for the UNDP AIDS project in Kyrgyzstan, Larisa Bashmakova, told IRIN in the capital, Bishkek. “We don’t have a very high incidence of AIDS in this country, but given the current rise in intravenous drug usage, an HIV outbreak could happen any minute.” According to Bashmakova, once HIV infection spreads among drug addicts, infections set in very quickly. “In the past, people used to smoke, sniff or use oral drugs. Today, 71 percent of the country’s drug addicts are intravenous drug users, up from only 10 percent in 1991.” That figure is even higher in urban areas, with 86 percent of addicts in the southern city of Osh and 91 percent of addicts in Bishkek, being intravenous drug users, Bashmakova added. Official records indicate that in 1991 there were 1,642 registered addicts, 569 of whom were intravenous drug users. In 2000, the number of users had risen to 3,261 of the 4,459 addicts registered. Bashmakova maintained, however, that in reality the figures should be multiplied by 10, bringing the total number of addicts closer to 50,000. According to recent surveys, 20 percent of all addicts in Bishkek, and 30 percent in Osh “could be infected with HIV”, she warned. There are 92 official cases of HIV infection in Kyrgyzstan today, 47 of them among Kyrgyz citizens and the rest among foreigners. The first case was diagnosed in 1996, and that person died last year. In the first four months of 2001, there were 39 new cases of HIV infection officially registered, Bashmakova said. Commenting on this rise in intravenous drug usage, she said: “Of course social factors are a leading contributor to this increase in drug usage, but the main problem is availability.” She added: “A small portion of heroin is cheaper than a bottle of beer in Osh.” The situation looks set to worsen. “This is only the beginning in terms of AIDS in Kyrgyzstan. In a short time, because we are talking about drug addicts who share needles among small groups, the amount of HIV could spread fast.” United Nations experts estimate that 80 percent of Europe’s heroin originates in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many parts of Kyrgyzstan and its neighbour Tajikistan lie along the main smuggling route.