Although the government introduced needle exchange programmes shortly after the first cases of AIDS were documented in the UK, it has consistently refused to introduce legislation protecting injecting drug users (IDUs) from discrimination. It also has continually dismissed the idea of regulation and legalisation of illegal drugs despite admitting that the other options were "less-effective compromises".

The 1998 revised UK's national drug strategy changed its focus from harm-reduction and the reduction of blood-borne viruses to wider social harms, in particular drug-related crimes. This shift in focus has hindered the development and re-invigoration of harm-reduction measures aimed to prevent HIV transmission among especially vulnerable groups. There have been recent increases in HIV transmission among UK injecting drug users, especially younger IDUs and foreign nationals.

Several countries which have joined the EU on the 1st May 2004 belong to the countries of Eastern Europe which have been affected by a very rapid growth of the HIV epidemic qualified, by UNAIDS in 2001 and 2002, as the fastest growing epidemic worldwide. Poland is the country most affected by HIV in Central Europe and numerous other countries in the region have seen a sharp increase in Hepatitis C infections among injecting drug users, which very often is rapidly followed by a rise in HIV.

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Our fact files on HIV and Injecting Drug Users' Rights