Hurrah for Needle Exchange

As a wonderful Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Saturnalia present, Congress has finally passed the national budget that also removes the ban on federal funding for needle exchange.

As I've said before needle exchange is an effective tool to improve the lives of people who inject drugs.

Here is more: needle exchange has been thoroughly reviewed for (1) impact on HIV among injecting drug users, (2) uptake by injecting drug users of drug treatment programs, (3) impact on initiation of others to drugs and injecting, (4) impact on the neighborhood where the needle exchange point is placed.

What have the studies shown? Needle and Syringe Exchange Points: (1) reduce HIV incidence among injecting drug users- which also reduces the potential for HIV to be passed on to non-injectors through unprotected sex, (2) increase uptake of drug treatment programs, (3) DO NOT increase initiation among non-injectors and non-users to injecting drugs,(4)DO NOT hurt the neighborhoods around the points.

Needle and Syringe Exchange points are one of the few interventions that have been proven to effectively reduce HIV transmission rates among injecting drug users. There are really not many to choose from for this group. Finally, public health professionals funded by the US federal government can use these effective tools to address HIV among vulnerable groups.

The Lancet Strikes a Major Blow to the Pope's Flawed Argument Against Condom Use for prevention of HIV transmission

The Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals in the world joins the many public health professionals to call the Pope out for his irresponsible statement on condom use with regard to the HIV epidemic.

The Lancet states in an editorial, "When any influential person, be it a religious or political figure, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record."


AFP "Pope 'publicly distorted' condom science: Lancet"

See my previous posts on the Pope's comments here and here .

The Lancet

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What interventions can reduce HIV among IDUs

Way back when I was working in Central Asia, I served as a "country expert" in a joint WHO-UNODC process to set some sort of global standard targets in HIV prevention with injecting drug users (IDUs).

For those interested in HIV prevention interventions for IDUs, I recommend reading it. Not just because I was a part of this process. You get a basic idea of a comprehensive "package" to reduce incidence of HIV among IDUs and some of the definitions of standards indicators for coverage and quality- down to a definition of who should be considered an IDU. If your site does not include one of the elements of the "package"- perhaps that is the gap you should try to fill.

I found that other "HIV prevention comprehensive packages" are a bit of tripe and bs, but this is something that has potential (if only folks pay attention).

So read it!

WHO and UNODC
Technical guide for countries to set targets for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care for injecting drug users

Picture via Flickr