Syringe Exchange Programs: A Matter of Public Health Essay

The Department of Public Health, since its inception has provided services that are geared toward the protection of lives, mostly that of public awareness – through education, partnership and community engagement, professional development, research, and prevention of diseases. Since the welfare of the public is SFDPH

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) suggested that syringe exchange programs (SEP's) do have a positive impact. Their report stated that " SEP's have been shown to be an effective way to link some hard to reach individual drug users with important public health services including TB and STD screening and treatment. Through their referrals to substance abuse treatment , SEP's can help these users to stop using drugs." There is a consensus that these programs can and do work, while producing other fringe benefits as well. The problem remains however, how to tailor a program that fits the community that is designed to serve.

Ever heard of the saying, “Clean Needles Save Lives” that is exactly what the Needle Exchange Program is. It is a program which is designed to give a clean sterile needle to a drug user, so it can prevent or protect the Injection Drug User (IDU) from having disease such as HIV and Hepatitis B. Syringe exchange programs (SEPs) provides free sterile syringes and collect used syringes from injection-drug users (IDUs) to reduce transmission of blood borne pathogens, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus (HCV). The idea of needle exchange program occurred in the Congress back in 1997. This program was created to prevent the IDU's from being infected by a dirty needle.

Moreover, NEPs will provide sterile needle and syringes to avoid exchanges of used injections between drug users. Since NEPs are implemented, the number of HIV cases and other diseases are declined. In Saskatchewan, distributing needles reduces the total costs for health care because needle exchange programs reduce the transmission of HIV by one-third and accommodate a return of four thousand dollars investment in health care costs. (Thompson) Needle exchange program provide safety not only in drug addicts but also provide safety in the community. Many of needle exchange programs perform a one-for-one basis to decrease the exposure of contaminated needles in streets and playgrounds so that children and other people are away from needle sticks accident. (Franciscus)

You brought up a good question about how IV drug users currently obtain needles. One possibility is by theft. Needles are often reused and needle exchange programs will have a positive impact on reducing the spread of disease by sharing needles. I found a website that instructs users in methods to clean needles, http://www.friendtofriend.org/drugs/needles.html before reusing them. The Friend to Friend webpage does suggest that users give up their addiction, but provide methods for cleaning needles as an option for those individuals who do not have access to clean ‘works’.

The controversial issue of whether to distribute sterile needles and Narcan or Naloxone to addicts has been an increasing issue. The increase in the use of injectable substances such as opioids has caused a rise in the number of blood borne diseases, such as HIV. Programs have tried to combat this rise by distributing clean needles to addicts through needle exchange programs. These programs trade unsanitary, used needles for fresh, sterile ones. These programs also distribute the reversal medication for opioid overdoses, Naloxone. Programs like these are trying to benefit everyone with supplies they believe will be helpful to the addicts. These supplies are continuing to hurt the addicts as well. The needles allow for profit to be made by the

Clean needles should not be distributed to IV drug users. The reason for this is because, it is promoting illicit drug use, making drug abusers assume that it is ok to abuse drugs, and it will only put their life in more danger. To be clear, I am not presuming that they should use unsanitary needles, because not only would they be damaging their body by abusing drugs, but they are also putting their life at risk for contracting some type of infectious disease. Consequently, they should not be provided with any needles at all. Providing them with clean needles will only increase the rate of drug use. Furthermore, providing these drug users with clean needles is against the law. Since when did promoting illicit drug use became ok? Additionally,

saving lives, and the needle exchange program, which I prefer to call harm reduction programs, does that,” Sienkiewicz said.

“Worldwide, between 56% and 90% of people who inject drugs will be incarcerated at some point,” (“prisoners with HIV/ AIDS”). The minors today going into prison for the first time have never attempted drugs, in prison many of them are under the influence and are forced in to doing them. “In 2012, in Mauritania, HIV prevalence was an estimated 24.8% among prisoners, and 40% of this group were thought to inject drugs,” (“Prisoners HIV/ AIDS”). In prisons it is difficult to get clean injecting needles. Getting a needle is a punishable offence and therefore many people share their needles that haven’t been sterilized. Minors should not be in this type of environment because it leads to an even worse

yringe exchange programs are a very necessary service within Canada for which we should advocated. Syringe exchange programs help to reduce HIV infection rates among injection drug users while at the same time do not facilitate an increase in drug use (Wodak, A., 2006, p. 837). Syringe exchange programs provide injection drug users with sterile syringes for little to no cost (Zhang, S., Yan, P., Archibald, C., 2004). Contracting blood-borne diseases from sharing and using infected needles contributes to the overall epidemic and can spread to populations outside of injection drug users (Zhang, et al. 2004).

government it has gone on to showcase that sterile syringes do reduce the spread of HIV and does not increase drug use. The policy was also recognized by the former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher stating, “After reviewing all of the research to date, the senior scientists of the Department and I have unanimously agreed that there is conclusive scientific evidence that syringe exchange programs, as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy, are an effective public health intervention that reduces the transmission of HIV and does not encourage the use of illegal drugs.” (csam-asam.org) With the ongoing research of this policy, it has allowed many groups to stand behind it with high hopes of lowering the number of new HIV and viral hepatitis cases, without increasing drug use, crime, or unsafe discarding of syringes. Some of those groups that stand behind this policy are major medical and public health organizations throughout the world including the American Medical Association, Red Cross, UNICEF, National Academy of Sciences, CDC, World Health Organization, and many non-profits throughout the state and

Clean needles should and should not be distributed to intravenous (IV) drug users. I think clean needles should be distributed to IV drug users because it decreases the use of sharing needles. IV drug users who share unclean needles put themselves at risk for life-threatening diseases like HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis B/C. For example, when a person re-uses or share needles sometimes their blood is exchange and can cause one to become infected with blood-borne diseases. According to the textbook, about 9 percent of IV drug users in the United States were infected with HIV. The best way to avoid life-threatening diseases, IV drug user should use a new needle each time they inject themselves. Syringes are not designed to be used more than twice. Therefore,

Therefore considering the aim of public health which is mainly prevention it will reduce the medical cost of treating these communicable diseases due to injection drug use. This idea is supported by Studies conducted in Australia and United Kingdom where the timely initiation of needle exchange programs played a very important role in limiting the spread of HIV among injection drug users and the cost to the U.S. healthcare system of treating these preventable HIV infections between $244and $538 million, respectively (Drucker, 2013). The other opposition against the needle exchange program is related to discarding used needles. Opponents of the program argue that needle exchange programs increase the number of discarded needles in the community. However harm reduction programs such as drop boxes significantly help to reduce the number of needles discarded (Luc de Montigny, Anne V. Moudon, Barbara Leigh, Kim Young,

Some-times same syringes are used by many drug-addicts increasing the possibility of spreading the HIV infection. In Manipur where 40 to 50%of intravenous drug-users are HIV positive many of them are sent to jail in some cases even by their own parents. Blood donors too transmit the HIV infection. There are estimated to be 2000 blood banks in our country which supply about 20 lakh bottles of blood every year. Half of these blood banks are government banks and the remaining half is unlicensed. There are many professional donors who are also drug addicts which in turn may be HIV positive. When their blood is transfused to the patients without proper testing the HIV is transmitted. The pathological laboratories too transmit the HIV virus when they supply blood without scientific testing. Pregnant women who are HIV positive transmit the virus to the new-born children. About 65% of the pregnant women remain anaemic and require blood transfusion on the other hand some of the women get infected from their husbands. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in India is a rapidly escalating crisis. The government 's estimate that about 4 million persons in the country are HIV-positive is widely thought to understate the true figure. In several states of India, such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the epidemic has spread to the general population. The states that have not reported any HIV positive cases may be because of poor surveillance. It does not necessarily mean they are HIV-free. In

30 % of PWID are in north-eastern states, where injecting drug use is the major route of HIV transmission. However, HIV prevention efforts in this region have reduced the number of new infections. Research has stressed the need for early interventions for PWID in India, among which most influenced are the teenage/adolescent