PESHAWAR, July 24: The federal government in collaboration with donor organisations has launched a syringe exchange programme to check the spread of HIV/Aids and hepatitis among drug users.

Sources said that under the programme, non-government organisations would distribute new syringes among the ‘injecting drug users’ and collect from them the used ones. They said the used syringes would be destroyed.

The government planned to access 40 per cent of the targeted drug users in the country during the current year, the sources said.

The programme assisted by the Global Fund for TB, malaria and HIV/Aids; the United Nations Agency for International Development, the World Health Organization and the UN Development Programme has been launched through NGOs.

“Government employees are not taking part in the implementation of the programme directly, but it is providing free syringes to the NGOs under the ‘harm reduction’ services,” said the sources.

They said a survey conducted in 2004 had shown that the country had about 100,000 people using injections to take drugs and they were rapidly contracting HIV/Aids and hepatitis because of repeated use and sharing of syringes.

“This year, a study done in Sargodha revealed that 50 per cent of the type of drug users there suffered from HIV/Aids, which worried the government as well as the UN agencies,” the sources said.

After the study, UN agencies warned the government about the alarming situation and asked it to take measures to arrest the impending spread of the diseases among drug users and their families, they said.

“If the situation was not looked into, the disease could turn into an epidemic,” said a WHO official.

The sources said the government was constrained by legal compulsions from direct involvement in the programme. There was no law in the country which could authorise the government to deliver the services to drug users, they said.

The government, they said, was trying to introduce legislation to be able to take part in the service.

They said the government had also begun legislation to deal with those involved in narcotics trade with an iron hand and make arrangements for the rehabilitation of the addicts.