Australia clean-needle program keeping HIV at bay

Reuters: "'There has never been a significant, generalized outbreak of HIV among people who inject drugs in this country,' Topp said.

"'What our results show is that in a country where needle and syringe programs were introduced early and on a widespread basis, HIV transmission never became a problem among injectors.'

"Topp told Reuters Health in an email that, based on other research, the 1 percent HIV rate is true of all injection-drug users in Australia, and not only those who use the needle and syringe programs.

"By contrast, an estimated 16 percent of injection-drug users in the United States are living with HIV, while in Russia that figure is 37 percent."