The Medical Freedom Channel

“Pediatricians should speak out in support of needle-exchange programs to reduce the spread of HIV among injection drug users, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in a toughened policy statement. Doctors also should discuss HIV risk with their teenage patients ‘with a non-judgmental approach,’ the group says in the statement appearing today in the journal Pediatrics. The previous version of the policy, dated 1994, said clean-needle programs should be ‘encouraged and expanded.’ Unprotected sex is the most common way young people become infected, but sharing dirty needles or having sex with an injection drug user accounts for about 13 percent of youth AIDS cases. The policy drew criticism from Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, the group that last year blasted the academy for its support of over-the-counter emergency contraception.” (02/06/06)