Austria — Against the backdrop of some of the globe's fastest growing HIV epidemics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a report launched at the XVIII International AIDS conference (AIDS 2010) in Vienna makes the case for a new model for scaling up treatment and prevention of HIV amongst Injecting Drug Users (IDUs).

The report, "Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS amongst Drug Using Populations: A Global Perspective", advocated a science based approach and stressed the urgent need to increase access and expand take up of highly active anti retroviral therapy (HAART) among drug using populations to improve health and reduce new infections.

Increasing evidence supports the idea of expanding the implementation of outreach to high-risk, hard-to-reach drug using populations to encourage HIV testing to link HIV+ individuals to care and to sustain these individuals in care.

"There is an urgent need to treat drug users, not abuse them as much of the current drug policies do," said Dr Julio Montaner, President of the International AIDS Society. "Sound public health policy demands that we increase access to HIV treatment and prevention for this population."