The
Epidemic of Drug-Related AIDS |
ILLINOIS |
Each year the injection-related AIDS epidemic in Illinois affects more people. In order to slow the spread of AIDS among persons who inject drugs in Illinois and elsewhere, the Clinton Administration urgently needs to end the federal ban on funding clean needle programs.
Health Emergency in Illinois
The crisis among African Americans and Latinos
The future: thousands of all races at risk in Illinois
In the Chicago metropolitan area alone, Dr. Scott Holmberg of the Centers for Disease Control estimates there are 47,600 uninfected persons who inject drugs and who thus are at risk of getting HIV.
Saving lives and saving tax dollars
Each AIDS illness and death exacts an uncountable cost in human pain and suffering. Each AIDS illness and death has a very countable cost in dollars. Using sophisticated mathematical models, a University of California team of investigators estimates that it costs between $4,000 and $12,000 in clean needle program expenses for each HIV infection averted over a five-year period. This is, of course, far lower than the estimated $119,000 lifetime cost of treating an HIV-infected person.
Lifting the ban on federal funding of clean needle programs will permit communities in Illinois to save many lives that will otherwise be lost. Nationally, ending the ban will save billions of federal health care dollars.
Web presentation co-sponsored by the Dogwood Center, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, and Safe Works AIDS Project.