Opium production fuelling HIV spread: UN

The UN says Afghanistan’s rising cultivation of opium poppies is fuelling not only heroin abuse but also the rapid spread of AIDS and HIV.

The UN says Afghanistan’s rising cultivation of opium poppies is fuelling not only heroin abuse but also the rapid spread of AIDS and HIV.In its annual report the International Narcotics Control Board has noted increased levels of heroin abuse in South Africa, China and former Soviet countries, which all have high HIV infection rates. Afghanistan increased its production in 2003 to reclaim its position as the world’s biggest producer of the drug after the fall of the Taliban. The report says Europe remains the world’s main producer and trafficker of the illegal party drug, ecstasy, and is the second biggest market for cocaine after North America. (Source: Reuters Health, BBC, March 2004)