20 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC IN NEW JERSEY
NEW REPORT, NEW DATA

OVERVIEW: NEW JERSEY CONTINUES TO IGNORE PREVENTION FOR HALF THE EPIDEMIC: HIV/AIDS AMONG PEOPLE WHO INJECT DRUGS.  EPIDEMIC CONTINUES APACE.  Decade ending in 1990, 4,500 AIDS cases among injecting drug users in New Jersey.  Decade ending in 2000, an addition 25,500 HIV and AIDS cases among injecting drug users in New Jersey.

NEW DATA: NEW JERSEY COUNTIES WITH THE HIGHEST HIV/AIDS RATES:  The counties with the highest rates are Essex, Hudson and Atlantic.  Information on all 21 New Jersey counties is given on Dogwood Center website. 

NEW TREND: GROWTH OF DRUG INJECTION AMONG 18 TO 25 YEAR OLDS IN SUBURBAN AND RURAL AREAS IN NEW JERSEY: According to a new study, between 1993 and 1999, the number of suburban and rural young adults entering drug treatment in New Jersey increased by almost 400 percent.

NEW DATA: GREAT HIV RISK FOR WOMEN IN NEW JERSEY:  Based on new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Jersey leads the country in percentage of AIDS cases among women.

NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY COMPARED ON NEEDLE ACCESS POLICY: New York has 14 needle exchange programs, permits pharmacy sale of syringes without a prescription and has recently changed its drug paraphernalia law so that possession of a sterile syringe is not a crime.  All these measures are recommended by our national public health leaders, including the American Medical Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Academy of Science and Institute of Medicine.

Through criminal prosecution, New Jersey has shut down the state’s one needle exchange program.  New Jersey remains one of only four states that require a prescription to purchase syringes from a pharmacy.  Possession of a sterile syringe is still a crime under New Jersey’s drug paraphernalia law.

Dr. Dawn Day, director of the Dogwood Center and author of the report, comments, “It is the most basic duty of government to save the lives of its citizens.  New Jersey’s leaders must act now to increase drug treatment and improve needle access so that more people do not suffer and die from drug-related HIV/AIDS.”

See the full report.

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