HIV shoots up

Strict laws on the criminalisation of drug use and drug users are fuelling the spread of HIV and other serious harms associated with the criminal market and should be reviewed, say experts in this series of articles, published to coincide with the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, which runs from 18 to 23 July 2010. In this video accompanying the articles, epidemiologist Elizabeth Pisani and other leading commentators describe which countries are leading the way in tackling HIV infection among injecting drug users.

Read all articles on harm reduction

• An alternative to the war on drugs
• Policy resistance to harm reduction for drug users and potential effect of change
• Survival and cessation in injecting drug users
• How Ukraine is tackling Europe's worst HIV epidemic
• Evidence based policy for illicit drugs
• Knowing the score: a doctor addict tells his story

With photographs on AIDS in Russia from The Fire Within by John Ranard (1952-2008).