NCJ Number
171384
Journal
Substance Use & Misuse Volume: 33 Issue: 5 Dated: special issue (1998) Pages: complete issue
Editor(s)
D Paone,
S Einstein
Date Published
1998
Length
234 pages
Annotation
This special journal issue examines needle exchange programs, policies, and practices in Vietnam, Nepal, Thailand, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Abstract
A study of the feasibility of establishing a needle exchange program in Vietnam highlights several important issues: program acceptability in the community, training and recruitment of outreach workers who are former drug users, distribution of clean needles and syringes through outreach services rather than at established exchange sites, and appropriate methods for the collection of used injection equipment. The Lifesaving and Lifegiving Society works with intravenous drug users (IDUs) in Nepal to reduce the harm caused by drugs and to prevent AIDS. Needle exchange programs operating for several years in Thailand have been effective in limiting AIDS transmission in small communities. Needle exchange programs in Germany are linked to local responses to the drug problem, while needle exchange programs in Australia have been reasonably successful in preventing AIDS. Canada has developed a national action plan to decentralize both methadone maintenance and needle exchange programs, increase access to detoxification and treatment services, and change criminal justice and law enforcement practices. Advantages and disadvantages of the needle exchange program in Oakland, California, are noted, and demographic and drug use characteristics, health status, and HIV-related risk behaviors among clients of San Francisco's needle exchange program are described. Hepatitis C virus transmission dynamics in IDUs and organizational aspects of needle exchange programs are discussed. References, tables, figures, and photographs