Many addicts clean their needles in cold water

Researchers studied drug use and HIV infection in 23 Asian countries. They found the use of drugs, and particularly intravenous drugs, is rising in every one of these nations.

In China, for example, they estimate there are now around six-million drug users, half of them injecting.

In many of the countries they surveyed, drugs are the single biggest cause of HIV transmission - in Iran and Malaysia, three-quarters of infections are caused by sharing needles.

Across the region, they found needle sharing is common. Many addicts clean their needles in cold water, which does not kill viruses.

In several countries, including Pakistan, India, China and Bangladesh, female drug users are increasingly involved in commercial sex work, meaning that if they contract HIV through an infected needle, they can in turn pass it on to their customers.

Government measures

The report says some Asian governments have measures such as free supplies of condoms, to prevent HIV spreading through unprotected sex, but as yet they are doing little to break the link between drugs and Aids.

It condemns the routine use of imprisonment for drug possession in some Asian countries. But it says harm-reduction programmes, such as the free provision of safe needles and methadone for heroin addicts, is helping in some nations, such as India, Iran, Thailand and Vietnam.

In Laos, harm reduction is now a component of the government's National Aids plan, and China also includes such measures in its current five-year Aids programme.