§ Mr. StrangTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his policy with regard to the provision of clean needles for injecting drug misusers in order to reduce the spread of HIV.
§ Mr. NewtonInjection drug misusers must be warned of the many risks of drug misuse in general and injecting in particular and discouraged from both. However, it is clearly important that if misusers cannot or will not stop injecting, they should not share injecting equipment.
We are currently evaluating the part which needle and syringe exchange schemes can play in reducing the extent of sharing among injecting drug misusers. A recent report from the researcher evaluating 14 experimental schemes confirms early evidence of some promising features of these schemes. We will shortly issue guidance to health authorities in England based on the evaluation so far, in order that those local agencies which consider it in their interest to establish schemes should operate them as effectively and responsibly as possible.
Additionally, retail pharmacies may sell needles and syringes to drug misusers.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the latest available figure for the number of patients with AIDS who have acquired listeria.
§ Mr. NewtonFigures for the number of patients with AIDS who have acquired listeria are not collected.
§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the latest available figure for the number of patients with AIDS who have died as a result of listeria.
§ Mr. NewtonThere were no deaths registered in England and Wales for which AIDS or HIV infection was known by OPCS to be the underlying cause of death which also contained a reference on the death certificate to listeria (International Classification of Diseases 9th Revision codes 027.0 and 771.2) in the three years 1985 to 1987.
§ Mr. ThurnhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many cases of the AIDS virus HIV-2 have been identified to date in(a) the United Kingdom and (b) the Greater Manchester area; and what tests are being carried out to detect this strain of the virus.
§ Mr. NewtonTo the end of June this year, two cases of infection with HIV-2 have been identified and reported to the communicable disease surveillance centre. Neither case was reported from the Greater Manchester area. Regional transfusion centres identify donors who have recently visited or have lived, after 1977, in certain West African countries where HIV-2 is known to be prevalent and send58W a sample of their blood to the public health laboratory service to be tested for HIV-2. So far no cases have been identified in this way. Since May 1987 all specimens sent to the central public health laboratory through the routine laboratory reporting system for HIV-1 testing have also been tested for HIV-2.