AIDS: Information to Drug Misusers (Hansard, 10 March 1986)

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Baroness Trumpington)
My Lords, in the absence of a cure or vaccine, health education is the most important weapon we have to control the spread of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Government funding has been provided to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the Standing Committee on Drug Abuse and the Health Education Council to assist them in producing posters and leaflets emphasising the risk of infection associated with the sharing of injecting equipment by drug misusers. The Scottish Aids Monitor has also prepared a leaflet on advice and information for drug misusers and their partners. Information on this route of transmission of infection will also be provided in the forthcoming public information campaign on AIDS.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for her reply. Is she aware of the disturbingly high proportion of drug addicts in Edinburgh who have been infected with AIDS because they have been sharing syringes? While the Government's attitude that they do not want to appear to be doing anything to encourage drug taking is entirely understandable, should not something more now be done in order to prevent the spread of AIDS in other cities, with lethal consequences for drug addicts who might otherwise be cured?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, there are various permutations of the answer to that question. The Government are aware of the worrying incidence of AIDS acquired through infected needles by sufferers in Scotland. According to the information that has been given, the Chief Medical Officer of the Scottish Home and Health Department has set up an advisory committee to review the extent of AIDS infection in Scotland, particularly among drug misusers, and to consider what steps should be taken to contain the spread of infection. The voluntary organisation which I mentioned has prepared a leaflet about it, as I said.

§ Baroness Macleod of Borve
My Lords, may I ask my noble friend the Minister whether AIDS is a notifiable disease? If it is not, do the Government think that it should be?

§ Baroness Trumpington
No, my Lords. A voluntary system for the reporting of cases to the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre on a confidential basis is working well. We have no plans to replace this arrangement with a statutory reporting system.

§ Lord Ennals
My Lords, can the Minister comment on an article on this subject in last week's Lancet which suggests, first, that men can be infected during normal sexual intercourse by women who have the AIDS virus; and, secondly, that the time has now come for safe sex guidelines to be issued in order to minimise the dangers of this very deadly virus being spread through ignorance by the public?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, as I have already announced, a public information campaign on AIDS will be forthcoming. On the 2nd December 1985 my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Social Services announced that £2½ million had been earmarked for a campaign directed at the general public, to be coupled with campaigns targeted at groups known to be at special risk of infection. The necessary preliminary market research has been completed and we hope to make an announcement on the form of the campaign and the launch date soon.

§ Lord Ennals
My Lords, if your Lordships will forgive me for rising again, may I say that I warmly welcome the news of a campaign given by the noble Baroness. Could she give some thought, or ask her right honourable friend to give some thought, to the idea of guidelines as proposed in the Lancet, which is certainly warmly endorsed by me?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, I think that the noble Lord will have to wait until the campaign is launched and then he will be able to see for himself.

§ Baroness Masham of Ilton
My Lords, may I ask the Minister if she is aware that Holland and some cantons of Switzerland are giving out clean needles to drug addicts and that this is helping to stop the spread of AIDS? Is the noble Baroness further aware that drug abusers are a very heavy burden on the state when they are dying of AIDS, as they have no family support? Could not this be a very cost-effective method of reducing the spread of infection?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, in answer to the noble Baroness, the transmission of AIDS through contaminated shared syringes is a worrying danger—and here I pick up again one of the points made by my noble friend in his first supplementary question. However, at present there is no reason to believe that if clean syringes and needles were made readily available that would necessarily deter established injecting users from sharing with other drug users. Indeed, the free availability of needles and syringes could encourage drug users to experiment with injections. Effective action is more likely to result from the general improvements in services for drug misusers which the Government are seeking to achieve through the local statutory authorities. However, we are keeping the situation under close review.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, I am sure that the whole House will welcome the fact that the Government are taking this grim disease seriously and are proposing to take action and spend money on this campaign. Can the Minister tell the House at this stage what are the statistics? She said there were a number of permutations. Does she feel that at the moment the disease is under control or is it out of control? What are the percentage figures over the last 12 months?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, up to the end of February 1986, 305 cases had been reported in the United Kingdom and of those 157 have died. The majority of these were homosexual men; 88 per cent. Up to 2nd January two cases had been reported where infecting drug misuse was the main risk factor. One of those has died.