The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is calling on its members to support the establishment of needle-exchange programs to prevent the spread of AIDS among IV-drug users, the Associated Press reported Feb. 6.

In 1994, the AAP adopted a policy statement calling for needle exchanges to be "encouraged and expanded." About 13 percent of youth AIDS cases are caused by sharing dirty needles; the AAP also advised pediatricians to discuss AIDS with young patients using a "nonjudgmental" approach. 

"Pediatricians should advocate for unencumbered access to sterile syringes and improved knowledge about decontamination of injection equipment," the newly revised statement said.

"If we can help young people avoid a chronic illness that we have no cure for, I would hope people would embrace that idea," said Dr.  Lisa Henry-Reid of Chicago's John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital. 

Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, criticized the policy. "The recommendation will not rescue patients and neither does it promote healthy behavior," Wright said. "Instead, they have been promoting programs that encourage riskier activities." 

The statement appears in the February 2006 issue of the journal Pediatrics.