Needle Exchange Programs Hold Promise of Curbing Infection

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Needle Exchange Programs Hold Promise of Curbing Infection

Detroit News (12/28/97)
Tobin, James

Abstract: Intravenous drug use is the second leading cause of HIV infection in men and women in the United States. To help reduce this mode of transmission, needle-exchange programs have been instituted across the nation, offering drug users free syringes for every used one they turn in. In the early 1980s, Detroit health officials tried to create such a program but their efforts were halted by red tape, resulting in a less controversial "teach and bleach" program that focused on education. Meanwhile, from 1986 to 1995, more than 1,300 AIDS cases in southeast Michigan have been attributed to IV drug use, suggesting that had an NEP been instituted, many HIV infections could have been prevented. In 1996, the Detroit City Council approved an NEP, and within the past year two private agencies have launched needle exchanges.

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