The 12th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm will be held in New Delhi from April 1 to 5, 2001. The theme of this Conference, which is being held for the first time in Asia, will be "Community Development for Harm Reduction".

The aim of the conference is to reduce the health, social and economic harms associated with drugs by mobilizing local, national, regional and international organisations to assist individuals and communities.

Speaking about the conference, Dr. David Miller, Country Programme Advisor-UNAIDS, said" The conference, coming to Asia is an extremely significant move as it comes at a time when Asia, including India, is witnessing a major spurt in HIV and other harms related to injecting drug use. The pattern of drug use is changing from inhalation of brown sugar to injecting and with this the danger of contracting HIV and other blood viruses associated with the sharing of contaminated injecting equipment is related."

The conference would be inaugurated by Dr.C.P. Thakur, Union Minister of Health on April 1, 2001 in New Delhi. Delegates from all over the world will be attending this conference. The key speakers include: Dr. Alex Wodak, Director, Alcohol and Drug Services, St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Pat O'Hare, Editor, The International Journal of Drug Policy, U.K.; Gerry Stimson, Director, The Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour, Imperial College of Medicine, U.K.; Dr. Suresh Kumar, Honorary Consultant and Psychiatrist SAHAI Trust Madras; Luke Samson, Director, Sharan and Jimmy Dorabjee, Chairman, Asian Harm reduction Association (AHRN).

Anne Bergenstrom, Programme Officer, UNAIDS-Inter-country office, said, " Besides covering the major issues of HIV prevention and injecting drug use in the region, health enhancing drug policy, community development, harm reduction for legal drugs, this year's conference will also feature an increased focus on the wider factors influencing drug use-including alcohol and tobacco-and related harm."

Luke Samson, Conference President, said," As per a joint study conducted by John Hopkins University and Sharan (the spirit of shelter), the percentage of HIV Seroprevalence amongst IDU's is alarming with highest at 80 per cent in Imphal, 15 to 19.5 per cent in Chennai, 7.43 per cent in Mumbai, 2 per cent in Calcutta and a startling 44.5 per cent in Delhi. Except for Imphal where 7 per cent of IDUs were women, the majority (95 per cent) of drug injectors were males who were also sexually active and had unprotected sex. In Delhi, for example, 94 per cent were sexually active and 77 per cent had never used condoms, while in Chennai 84 per cent had sex in the past year and 59 per cent had not used condoms during their last sexual encounter."

Renate Ehmer, Representative, UNDCP, said," What has emerged as a substitute to heroin addiction are cocktails of prescription drugs like Avil, diazepam and norphine, which are injected by brown sugar users. The resultant mixture is corrosive, extremely addictive and relatively cheap in this region. "

The first conference was held in Liverpool, U.K. in 1990 and since then the conference has become a much sought-after annual event for stimulating global action and interaction on the subject. Subsequent conferences have happened in Barcelona, Melbourne, Rotterdam, Toronto, Florence, Hobart, Paris, Sao Paulo and Geneva with the last one coming back to the U.K. at Jersey in the Channel Islands in April 2000.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is an innovative joint venture of the United Nations family. UNAIDS brings together the efforts and resources of seven UN system organisations to help the world prevent new HIV infections, care for those already infected, and mitigate the impact of the epidemic. Sharan, the local hosts of the conference, is an organization with a staff of over 125 people. Sharan is working for projects ranging from health care, education, development, income generation, savings and cooperatives to management of drug use and HIV/AIDS.