Peter Lurie and Pamela DeCarlo

HIV is known to be transmitted through blood, and injection drug users are at risk of infection if they share contaminated needles. In the following viewpoint, Peter Lurie and Pamela De- Carlo maintain that needle exchange programs (NEPs), which distribute sterile needles in exchange for used ones, are an effective means of controlling the spread of HIV. According to the authors, NEPs frequently offer other services to help drug users get off drugs and into treatment. Studies show that NEPs do not encourage drug use, they assert. Lurie is a physician and AIDS researcher at the Public Citizen’s Health Research Group and an assistant professor with the University of California San Francisco’s Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. DeCarlo is also an AIDS researcher...