Vol. 494 No. 4
280 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Health and Children the plans, if any, he has to incorporate an emphasis on harm reduction and harm minimisation measures into the efforts being made by his Department to tackle the drugs crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18316/98]
Where necessary harm reduction and harm minimisation measures are an integral part of drug demand reduction strategies.
For example, because injecting drug use in Dublin was seen as an extremely high risk behaviour and an important source of transmission of the HIV virus in this country, with almost 50 per cent of cases of HIV being drug-related in 1993, the National AIDS Strategy Committee accepted the need for harm reduction measures, such as methadone maintenance and needle exchange, to ensure that injecting drug users availed of the full range of treatment services and reduced their risk of acquiring HIV. These programmes have been introduced by the Eastern Health Board and continue to be expanded into areas where the need for such programmes is identified. Present figures indicate that intravenous drug users account for approximately 43 per cent of the total number of reported cases of HIV.
