Pubdate: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2005 Calgary Herald Contact: http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 Author: Sheryl Ubelacker, Canadian Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) INJECTION SITES CUT HIV RISK Street Drug Users Less Likely To Share Needles, Study Says Giving addicts a safe, supervised place to inject drugs may help reduce syringe-sharing, thereby preventing the spread of hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, Canadian research suggests. A University of British Columbia study has found that drug users who regularly use Vancouver's safe-injection site on the gritty east side are 70 per cent less likely to share needles than those who give the facility a pass. "This is extremely important because Vancouver has been the site of one of the most explosive HIV epidemics among injection-drug users that has ever been observed in the developed world," said Thomas Kerr, a researcher at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and lead author of the study. "We know syringe sharing is the primary driving factor of these two epidemics," Kerr said from Vancouver. "So it's very good news to have identified an intervention that seems to be having some type of protective effect." But addiction experts, noting that the number of participants in the study was small and the city's drug-abuse problem complex, say the injection site's impact on curtailing needle-sharing should not be overstated. The study, appearing in this week's issue of the Lancet, looked at the habits of 431 injection-drug users to see how many shared syringes to shoot up heroin, cocaine, crystal meth or other drugs. About 90 -- or 21 per cent - -- reported visiting North America's only safe-injection clinic for "some, most or all of their injections," said Kerr. Seventy per cent of those who made use of the injection site reported being less likely to share syringes "than individuals who used the facility only occasionally or not at all," said Kerr. Dubbed InSite, the clinic opened in 2003 to provide a safe alternative to the streets for Vancouver addicts to inject drugs. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth