AEGiS-APPJ: Evaluating Needle Exchange Programs via Syringe Tracking and Testing (STT) AIDS & Public Policy JournalImportant note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Evaluating Needle Exchange Programs via Syringe Tracking and Testing (STT)

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 6, no. 3 (Fall 1991): 109-15
Edward H. Kaplan

This article offers a new approach to evaluating needle-exchange programs that employs the needles themselves as primary data. Via syringe tracking and testing (STT) it is possible to obtain rapid and relatively unobtrusive estimates of needle sharing, needle-return rates and circulation times, and changes in the rate of HIV infection among needles distributed by the program. Such an STT system has been implemented as part of the evaluation of New Haven's legal needle-exchange program; together with limited client surveys, preliminary data from this STT have provided useful insights following only seven and one-half months of program operations. In this article, all aspects of syringe tracking and testing are detailed and illustrated using data from New Haven. As the reader will see, the idea is that whenever possible, one should let the needles do the talking!
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APPJ916302

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