The Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA
Copyright 1999: The Advocate

November 29, 1999

Adrian Angelette
Advocate staff writer 

Intravenous drug abusers have created more troubles for those in the Baton Rouge area trying to eliminate the spread of AIDS, according to state health officials.

The illegal drug use is not only placing the abusers at risk. Their sex partners and others linked by subsequent contact with those sex partners face a greater risk of acquiring the virus, the officials said.

Taking dirty needles out of circulation could reduce the number of AIDS cases, said Dr. Tom Farley, medical director for the HIV/AIDS Program in the state Office of Public Health. That office is included in the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

"(Intravenous) drug use is in that chain," he said.

Farley said a potentially effective way to combat the spread of AIDS through intravenous drug abuse would be to have pharmacists sell clean needles to the abusers.

Farley said there is a misconception that making clean needles available will create new drug abusers.

"People don't inject drugs because a needle is available," he said.

He also said that needle exchange programs are less effective in rural states, such as Louisiana, than they are in states with very large urban centers such as New York and California.

A.J. Johnson, director of education for Friends for Life AIDS Resource Center on North Foster Drive, said there is no push to have needle exchange programs legalized in Louisiana. The center is pursuing a needle voucher program that would have pharmacists sell needles to drug abusers.

Johnson and Farley said the voucher program is legal in Louisiana.

The sale of needles to intravenous drug users is optional for pharmacists. Farley said a study done within the past five years found that 20 percent to 25 percent of pharmacists are willing to participate in the program.

Farley said the needle voucher program has been endorsed by the American Medical Association and American Association of Pharmacists as a way to stem the proliferation of AIDS cases.

Johnson said Friends for Life already hands out bleach kits to intravenous drug abusers to clean their needles. The organization also offers street outreach programs, educational programs and free condoms to people "at risk" of getting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Johnson said he's not surprised that the Baton Rouge metropolitan area leads the state in new AIDS cases arising from the use of dirty needles.

According to the HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report by the Louisiana Office of Public Health for 1998, the Baton Rouge metropolitan area, with a population of 575,129, has had 1,838 cases of people with AIDS since 1984. Of those who reported the at-risk behavior that probably resulted in them getting HIV, 879 individuals, or 47.6 percent, reported intravenous drug abuse or sexual relations with an intravenous drug abuser.

The Baton Rouge metropolitan area, which includes East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Iberville, West Feliciana, East Feliciana, Ascension and Pointe Coupee Parishes, accounts for 145 of the 188 new cases of AIDS diagnosed in 1998.

In 1998, that at-risk behavior accounted for 79, or 56.8 percent, of 139 new AIDS cases.

The Surveillance Report also indicates that in the Baton Rouge region:

• Eighty-eight percent of all the 188 AIDS cases diagnosed in 1998 were African Americans. Of all AIDS cases reported since 1984, African Americans accounted for two thirds of the 1,237 cases in the Baton Rouge region.

• Fifty-nine percent of all the 1998 cases were African-American males.

• African-American females are acquiring AIDS at a much faster pace than normal. In 1998, 55 African-American females, or 29 percent of the total, were diagnosed with AIDS.

• Also in 1998, there were 33 homosexual men diagnosed with the AIDS virus while 74 people reported they acquired the virus through intravenous drug use.

When it comes to all AIDS cases, Louisiana as a whole trailed only five states and the District of Columbia in the number of AIDS cases per 100,000 residents, according to the Surveillance Report and the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Louisiana had 951 new cases of AIDS in 1998, or 21.8 cases per 100,000, according to state health statistics. That's a drop from the 1,090 cases in 1997, or 25 cases per 100,000.

The higher rate of AIDS cases per 100,000 people diagnosed in 1998 were found in the District of Columbia, 189.1; New York, 47.9; Florida, 36.5; Maryland, 31.9; New Jersey, 26.3; and Delaware, 23.4.

Farley said Louisiana has a high per capita rate of AIDS because the virus spreads more readily among those with other sexually transmitted diseases, such as gonorrhea and syphilis, Farley said.

According to the Surveillance Report, 8.6 Louisiana residents per 100,000 have syphilis or gonorrhea. The national rate is 3.2 people per 100,000.

Baton Rouge Mayor Tom Ed McHugh said he knows of no past or current efforts to begin a needle-exchange program in the parish and likely wouldn't support one.

"I have a philosophical problem against anything that encourages illegal drug use," McHugh said.

McHugh said he does not object to the voucher program because it has the support of major medical associations and it doesn't require taxpayers' financing.

The mayor said he had not heard of the metropolitan area having a serious problem with AIDS spreading through intravenous drug use.

McHugh is not alone in his opposition to needle-exchange programs. President Clinton last year refused to allow federal money to be used to replace dirty needles with clean ones.

In 1998, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala encouraged more local communities to adopt their own needle-exchange programs..