Newsletter fifth issue, October 2008
In this Issue

- My second trip
- UN Report shows increased spread of HIV through drug injection
- RANAA – the fruit of regional cooperation
- Funding Available for Regional Harm Reduction Proposals.
-FHI projects on HR in Egypt
- News from IHRA
- Informal meeting of harm reduction networks
- IAC 2008 affiliated even
Other News

UN Report shows increased spread of HIV through drug injection

VIENNA, 24 September 2008. Findings published today in The Lancet show that nearly 16 million people are estimated to inject drugs worldwide. Almost 40 % of  injecting drug  users were estimated to be living in China, the USA and Russia. In some low and middle income countries more than 40% of all injecting drug users are HIV positive. 

The study, carried out by the Reference Group to the United Nations on HIV and Injecting Drug Useis based on a review of 11,000 documents from published, government and non-government reports, as well as consultations with world experts in the field. The expert group provides independent technical advice to United Nations’ agencies addressing injecting drug use and HIV, including: the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UNAIDS Secretariat. Click here to find out more
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If you have any question, or you would like to post articles on Harm Reduction, please contact us on the following email:
info@menahra.org.
 
WELCOME TO THE Fifth MENAHRA NEWSLETTER

Dear Members,

Please find below the fifth newsletter from MENAHRA – the new Middle East and North Africa harm reduction network. The network was established in June 2007 in order to strengthen harm reduction capacity, policies and interventions across all 22 countries in the region. The network consists of a central secretariat (in Lebanon) and three sub-regional harm reduction ‘Knowledge Hubs’ (in Iran, Lebanon and Morocco).
This newsletter is pleased to feature a number of articles relevant to harm reduction, as well as testimony, reports and events from the MENA region and around the world:

  • "My second trip", testimonial article written by ex-drug user treated with OST.
  • UN report shows increased spread of HIV through drug injection.
  • RANAA-the fruit of regional cooperation.
  • Call for proposals.
  • FHI projects on HR in Egypt.
  • News from IHRA.
  • Informal meeting on Harm Reduction Networks.
  • IAC 2008 affiliated event for and by the people who uses drugs and living with HIV.

The MENAHRA website – www.menahra.org – is updated on a regular basis and includes the full stories featured in this newsletter. Please visit the website whenever you can, and contact info@menahra.org if you have any news or information that you would like to include in future newsletters.

Please forward this newsletter to your contacts and colleagues.
  

رحلتي الثانية

بدأت رحلتي الثانية مع الحياة باللون الأحمر لأحرفٍ لم تكن تعني لي شيئاً HIV1+2  باللون الأسود HBSAG و HCV باللون الأحمر الطاغي. بعد فحوصات دوريّة اعتدت إجراءها في مختبر للدم، يزفّ لي العامل الصحّي المناوب بكلّ بساطة...!بأنّني مصاب بالتهاب الكبد ج. أي نعم "ماذا يعني ذلك؟" سألته "هيدا بموّت؟" أجاب "نعم" والتفت عنّي مبتعداً منشغلاً بأمورٍ أخرى يجريها قبل انتهاء دوام عمله. فعدت أسأله مجدداً: " هيدا بموّت؟". قال: " هيدا اللون الأحمر يعني positive للـ HCV . يعني أنّك مصاب بهذا الفيروس."
هو إعلان استسهل قوله لي دون أن يعيرني أي اهتمام، لا بل من دون أن يزوّدني بأيّة معلومات صحيّة عن هذا المرض. كان هذا الإعلان بمثابة بداية نهايتي أنا...
خرجت من المختبر هائماً على وجهي مسرعاً قاصداً أقرب تاجر للمخدّرات كي أحصل على المادّة السحريّة التي تعينني على تقبّل إعلانٍ كهذا. عندها، توقّف عدّاد الايام التي مضت من دون تعاطي المخدّرات على أنواعها وبعض الحبوب من هنا وبعض سجائر الحشيش من هناك أو بعض كؤوس الكحول في بعض الأحيان. المهم عندها أنّي لم أكن أقترب أبداً من تعاطي الهيرويين، وهي المادّة التي كنت على استعدادٍ لفعل أيّ شيء- فعلياً أيّ شيء- إلا الرجوع إلى تعاطي هذه المادّة القاتلة.  تتمة

 

  
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RANAA – the fruit of regional cooperation

Given the challenges facing international institutions and associations working in the field of AIDS, in terms of stigma and discrimination that hinder AIDS prevention projects and especially those targeting young people and groups most vulnerable to infection, the cooperation and coordination between these institutions in Arab countries came as an essential step in order to shape the Regional Arab Network Against AIDS (RANAA).

RANAA was established in 2002 through the initiative of the Tunisian Association… (ATL SIDA MST) and in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Joint United Nations Programme to Combat AIDS (UNAIDS)...Click here to find out more

  
Funding Available for Regional Harm Reduction Proposals.

The Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA - www.menahra.org )
aims to increase harm reduction capacity in the countries and territories of the Middle East and
North Africa region (MENA) 1.

Background
Considerable evidence exists for the effectiveness of harm reduction interventions for reducing
drug related harms, in particular in the prevention and amelioration of HIV/AIDS, other blood
borne virus infections including hepatitis B and C, overdose, and other social, health, and
economic risks associated with drug use. Harm reduction projects for people who inject drugs
typically encompass opioid substitution treatment, outreach, needle and syringe programmes,
voluntary counselling and testing and peer education. Click here to find out more

  
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FHI Projects on HR in Egypt

DECEMBER 2007 - The Drosos Foundation has awarded Family Health International (FHI) a four-year agreement to build the capacity of a local NGO, to reduce the transmission of HIV among most-at-risk populations. The project will conduct prevention activities among injecting drug users (IDUs) and provide comprehensive care to people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

The project will facilitate early detection and treatment by coupling street-based outreach for IDUs with voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT). Click here to find out more

  
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News from IHRA

IHRA and the Conference Consortium are please to announce Harm Reduction 2009: IHRA's 20th International Conference - which will take place in Bangkok, Thailand from the 19th to the 23rd April 2009. These conferences have gone from strength to strength in recent years - attracting over 1,200 delegates from 90 different countries. Please visit www.ihraconferences.net
<http://www.ihraconferences.net/>.

As always, we rely on your high quality submissions to put the conference programme together. In particular, the conference organisers are interested in receiving abstracts from delegates who are involved in delivering innovative harm reduction services, have some new and ground-breaking
research to report on, have an example of an effective or successful advocacy campaign, or wish to discuss or debate a particular area of harm reduction policy. Click here to find out more

  
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Informal meeting of harm reduction networks

Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN) undergoes internal management review and its Steering Committee will meet in September to address this, as well as broader structural issues, strategy of the Network, also interlinking with the initiative of Western European Harm Reduction Network. EHRN recently started to work more on the issues beyond HIV, like overdose, hepatitis C, female and young injectors.

Intercambios works on addressing absence of operational network in Latin America. There is an opportunity to use the upcoming regional consultation on harm reduction in a few months.

Click here to find out more

  
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IAC 2008 Affiliated event for and by the people who use drugs and living with HIV

The International AIDS Conference is a platform that gathered drug users who are living or affected with HIV in order to ensure great participation in the global response to HIV/AIDS.
As described by the organizers the objectives of this event were as follows:
• To provide participants with guidance on conference logistics and access to methadone in Mexico;
• To identify key advocacy issues to be raised and promoted throughout the conference;
• To review the 2004 leadership statement and the 2006 Declaration and revise commitments through a new  joint statement;
• To link key stakeholders through networking.

Click here to find out more

  
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