The first needle exchange program will be introduced in West Virginia on Wednesday.
The Cabell-Huntington Health Department is launching a one-year pilot project that aims to lower risks of needle sharing among drug users, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
Intravenous drug users can exchange their used needles with new, clean ones every Wednesday at the health department in Huntington. The program wants to combat stigma that discourages drug users to seek help and is part of a broader harm reduction approach.
“We don’t want it to be stigmatized as something that’s bad, we want people to be healthy no matter what their choices are, bad choices or,” Heather Wood, a nurse practitioner at the health department, told WVPB.
The needle exchange program would be a way to make contact between drug users and health officials, which it is hoped will lead to a drop in drug use and better health outcomes.
As of March 2009, the Center for Diseases Control and Prevented reported that 36 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico had needle exchange programs in place. Past evidence has supported the effectiveness of needle exchanges in improving health outcomes.
The CDC notes that “multiple reviews have concluded that syringe exchange leads to reductions in injecting risk behaviors.”
The Texas Medical Association also supports needle exchange programs, saying that “there is substantial evidence sterile syringe exchange programs are extremely effective in preventing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other blood-borne infectious diseases among injection drug users and their families.”
The pilot project is funded by a grant from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, as well as private donations. If the health department receives more grants, the program will expand.
