Regarding the article Needles for London drug addicts soar to 2.5M (Aug. 14). Cherie Emms has a valid point: the more syringes given out, the more will be found around neighbourhoods where drug users frequent. Medical officer of health Christopher Mackie states needles don't pose a large public threat. If it was his child exposed to this danger, I believe he would find it significant. I am glad the spread of disease among drug users is down, but increased needles discarded in our neighbourhoods is not the answer. Barbara Adkin London [end]
There are nearly 2,000 people in the Mountain State living with HIV/AIDS. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources showed, back in April, the state has the highest rates of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C cases in the country. In 2012, the Hep C rate was reported at 3.1 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 0.7 cases per 100,000 nationally. In 2013, Hep B rates were reported at 10.6 per 100,000 people, compared with the national rate of 0.9 cases per 100,000 people. [continues 1063 words]
Heroin is a damaging, addictive drug that often brings with it another health threat: potentially deadly infections spread by needle-sharing. In light of a spike in heroin use and Hepatitis C infections in Franklin County and across Ohio, health officials in Columbus are considering launching a needle-exchange program to provide drug users with clean needles - and at the same time put them in contact with people who might help them kick the habit. Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Teresa Long told The Dispatch that the city is in the early stages of discussing a comprehensive program that could include a needle exchange along with giving users access to treatment, a model that has found success elsewhere. She also would like to see increased distribution of naloxone, a drug (sold under the name Narcan) that can save opioid users from a fatal overdose. [continues 356 words]
Health Officials Say That Needlesharing by Drug Users Is Spreading Hepatitis C Locally and Statewide. The boom in heroin use paired with a surge in hepatitis C infections in Franklin County and across Ohio have heightened worries about the spread of other diseases, particularly HIV, and sparked conversations about a local needle exchange. Hepatitis C, a treatable but sometimes deadly viral disease that attacks the liver, was diagnosed in 719 people in Franklin County five years ago. The number had nearly doubled by last year, to 1,369, according to data from Columbus Public Health. So far this year, the county is on pace to record more than 1,400 cases. In just one year, the number of hepatitis C cases statewide grew from 10,020 in 2013 to 15,887 in 2014. [continues 747 words]
WATERLOO REGION - Almost 100,000 additional needles were distributed through Waterloo Region's needle syringe program during 2014. Public Health's annual report highlights that more than 454,000 needles were given out last year to more than 7,000 clients. According to Lesley Rintche, manager of sexual health and harm reduction with the region's public health department, expansion and increased awareness of the program led to more participants and contributed to the higher number of needles handed out last year. [continues 598 words]
The Richmond News found needles outside its No. 3 Road office. Do you know what to do if you find used hypodermic syringes? Would you know what to do if you found a used hypodermic needle in your yard or in your office parking lot in Richmond? We, at the Richmond News, had no idea what to do when we discovered two such items at the side of our building on No. 3 and Lansdowne roads last week. At first blush, it seemed straightforward and, after a quick Google search, we called the "Needle Pick-up Hotline" and left them a voicemail with our address. Simple enough? [continues 403 words]
It took Judith Feinberg years to gain political backing to open a needle exchange for injection-drug users in Ohio's Hamilton County, even as heroin and painkiller abuse spurred a flood of hepatitis C infections in the region. Six weeks after it opened last year in a recreational vehicle in a Cincinnati suburb, the local government shut it down, saying residents felt it encouraged drug use and attracted addicts to the neighborhood. Several other communities also rejected the project. Eventually, a church offered its parking lot. [continues 631 words]
"It doesn't necessarily mean we have an increase in drug use" Needle exchange seeing huge annual increase in sharps distributed. Cape Breton's needle exchange is continuing to see huge increases year-to-year in the number of needles it distributes but its executive director said it's not necessarily a clear correlation to increased drug use in a region that already has a significant drug problem. Christine Porter, executive director of the Ally Centre of Cape Breton, said the increase - more than 140,000 additional needles in the past year, for a total of 623,000 - is alarming but could be due to increased knowledge of the service and the desire by drug users for harm reduction. [continues 523 words]
The numbers are alarming. The Ally Centre of Cape Breton's needle exchange program served nearly five times as many young men and women during the 2014-15 fiscal year as it did in 2013-14. "It's pretty startling," said Christine Porter, executive director of the Sydney-based organization. "But we're seeing increased numbers every year, regardless. More than 623,000 syringes left this building last year, which is 140,000 more than (the previous year). Every year, we're seeing major, major increases in the numbers of syringes that leave here." [continues 329 words]
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana approved a yearlong needleexchange program Thursday for a county at the center of an HIV outbreak that prompted a new state law allowing such programs. State health Commissioner Dr. Jerome Adams' approval for Scott County includes a public-health emergency declaration that will allow it to operate a needle exchange through May 24, 2016. The southeastern Indiana county has operated a temporary needle-exchange since early April under executive orders Gov. Mike Pence signed in response to the largest HIV outbreak in state history. [continues 128 words]
WASHINGTON - In 1988, archconservative Sen. Jesse Helms successfully pushed Congress to prohibit federal dollars from being used to distribute sterile syringes to intravenous drug users, equating an effort meant to slow the spread of AIDS and other diseases to federal endorsement of drug abuse. Now, with a severe outbreak of HIV and hepatitis due to a surge in heroin use in states including Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia, the question of whether to let federal money support needle exchanges is back. Still, in contrast to a new willingness by state politicians to accept needle exchanges, Congress appears unlikely to overturn the moratorium even with drug problems hitting hard in states represented by those responsible for the spending bills that impose the ban. [continues 244 words]
WASILLA -- A different kind of blight is emerging from heroin use in the Valley: discarded hypodermic needles littering roadsides, parks and waterways from Butte to Houston. Valley residents say they find syringes without trying -- at a school bus stop in Big Lake, riding horses in Houston, in the sand next to Wasilla Lake. Houston Fire Capt. Christian Hartley found 30 needles in a stretch of road near a gravel pit just off the Parks Highway in April. Last year, most of the hypodermics turned up along the Parks Highway -- maybe users just threw them out vehicle windows, he said -- but this year most cluster along King Arthur Drive, Houston's busiest artery. [continues 1116 words]
The numbers are staggering and frightening and raise many questions about our future. In recent days the Daily Herald has been looking at the issue of discarded needles that are being disposed of by intravenous drug users in and around Prince Albert. Thousands a year are ending up anywhere but where they are supposed to, putting average Prince Albert residents, especially children, potentially at risk. Just as alarming are the number of needles actually being handed out to these individuals. It is stunning. [continues 631 words]
Number represents 95 per cent return rate to Straight to the Point exchange Of the 1,203,382 needles handed out to intravenous drug users in Prince Albert between April 1, 2013, and March 31, 2014, 59,671 are unaccounted for. This represents a return rate of 95 per cent of the needles handed out at the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region's Straight to the Point Harm Reduction Program's needle exchange. On Thursday, members of the Prince Albert Fire Department walked through a field littered with thousands of used needles while attending a grass fire east of the Central Avenue viaduct. [continues 510 words]
Dumped on the boulevard just outside his home, Coun. Lee Atkinson found dozens of used needles and other drug paraphernalia first thing Friday morning. Not too big a surprise, he shrugged, noting that needles are a common sight around his midtown area home. A few houses down, there's a vacant property with several needles, aerosol cans, clothing, a mattress and mouth wash containers strewn about. As the snow melts, evidence of a winter's worth of nefarious acts are being uncovered, prompting the Prince Albert Fire Department's annual warning to look out for sharps. [continues 300 words]
Public health officials want to take a long-running needle-exchange program to the streets. It's a one-year pilot to reduce the threat to the public from sticks from improperly discarded hypodermic needles, by locating a collection bin in a downtown parkette across Talbot St. from city hall, and a second bin on the north side. Dr. Joyce Lock, medical officer of health for Elgin St. Thomas Public Health, says the initiative is part of a multi-pronged approach to harm reduction in drug use. [continues 423 words]
Regarding the March 27 Politics & the Nation Digest item "Governor authorizes needle exchanges": With two Midwestern governors - Mike Pence (R) of Indiana and Steve Beshear (D) of Kentucky - recently supporting syringe-exchange programs in some fashion, it is a good time for Congress to repeal the federal ban that prohibits states from using federal prevention dollars to make sterile syringes available to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. This ban has cost thousands of lives and millions of dollars. Repealing it would reduce federal healthcare expenditures and give states greater flexibility. Decades of peer-reviewed studies have conclusively shown that syringe-exchange programs save lives without increasing drug use. States should be free to use prevention money on these effective services if they want. Bill Piper, Washington The writer is director for national affairs of the Drug Policy Alliance. [end]
WILMINGTON - An object about the size of a AA battery glinted in the dirt. Susan Stroup turned it over with her tongs, revealing milliliter markings along the side. She picked up the broken syringe just a few feet from a jungle gym at the edge of Robert Strange Park. "Yep, that's exactly what that is," said Stroup, an N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition volunteer, as she dropped the syringe into a biohazard container. On Saturday, the coalition hosted an event to collect needles discarded by injection drug users around Wilmington. Volunteers searched areas including Greenfield Lake Park, parts of Orange and Ann Streets, and the railroad tracks near 17th Street and Oleander Drive, finding eight syringes, one crack cocaine pipe and other drug paraphernalia. [continues 315 words]
Safe Handling Methods Crucial to Cleaning Up Across Prince Albert, the snow is disappearing and needles are appearing. It is an unfortunate reality of spring, but one that a number of local agencies are prepared to deal with. There are seven permanent needle drop boxes in Prince Albert - most found in the downtown - and two numbers to call for help with needle disposal. While the vast majority of the needles, or "sharps," used for intravenous drug use in P.A. are returned to the Straight to the Point Harm Reduction Program on 15th Street East or disposed of in the yellow drop boxes, thousands are revealed once the snow melts. [continues 371 words]
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Governor Mike Pence overrode Indiana law and his own antidrug policies Thursday to authorize a short-term needle-exchange program designed to help contain HIV infections in a rural county where 79 cases have been reported, all of them tied to intravenous drug use. Pence issued an executive order declaring a public health emergency in Scott County, an economically depressed area about 30 miles north of Louisville, Ky., that has seen dozens of new infections since December. The county typically sees only about five HIV cases each year, health officials said. [continues 89 words]
