EASTERN EUROPE ASIA / HIV PREVENTION

This bus is a beacon of hope for some of Russia's most marginalized people.

The non profit needle exchange bus tours St. Petersburg providing clean needles and syringes to injecting drug users.

SOUNDBITE (Russian) Eduard, Injecting Drug User:
"The bus is my life-line. I have no documents or any way to ask any official or organization for help."

There are nearly two million injecting drug users in Russia. Contaminated needles and syringes are driving the AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the only regions in the world where HIV prevalence is clearly on the rise.

Studies show that combining needle and syringe programs with antiretroviral therapy and other services prevent new HIV infections. But most drug users don't have access.

SOUNDBITE (Russian) Nicholai Ekimov, psychologist:
"Unfortunately, there are not enough prevention programs in our country. I can list them on one hand."

Halfway around the world, China is also faced with HIV and drug use.

The country has the world's largest population of injecting drug users.

Wang Xiaoguang was an injecting drug user for 5 years, but now he runs the Daytop Drug Center in Kunming.

SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Wang Xiaoguang, Director, Daytop Drug Center:
"We think they need to have a role model, someone they can see used to be a drug user just like them and was able to give up drugs and has a good lifestyle."

Here, patients are offered methadone to help kick their habit. In the past decade China has gone from zero tolerance to actively preventing HIV transmission among drug users.

SOUNDBITE (English) Michel Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS:
"HIV services to drug users are so important because it is based on scientific evidence and we can have zero new transmissions amongst drug users if those services become universal."

Clinics like Daytop are helping to rebuild lives. And there's evidence that these personal triumphs are adding up and reducing new HIV infections.