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The Northampton Needle Exchange used
to enforce a “one-for-one” exchange policy, but now no longer requires clients
to turn in dirty needles in order to obtain clean ones.
The program's director, Tim
Purington, said, “It's not practical to think that people are always going to
be able to bring back needles to where they get them. Holding a clean syringe
hostage until you bring a dirty one in is really a bad health policy.”
The policy has led to a large
discrepancy between the count of needles given out and those returned. In 2011,
83,035 needles were distributed by the Northampton outreach, and 54,404 were
received in return. Launched 15 years ago, it is one of four needle exchange
programs (NEPs) in Massachusetts seeking to thwart the spread of HIV.
“In the last 10 years the number of
new cases among needle drug users [has] gone down from 75 to 80 percent,” said
Kevin Cranston, director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease at the Department
of Public Health. “And I think we can attribute this greatly to needle
exchange.”
According to Purington, another goal
of the NEP is to keep drug users coming back by providing rehabilitation
counseling, health information, and rapid HIV and hepatitis C testing. The
counselors also educate clients about drug overdoses and proper needle
disposal.
The number of needles a person gets
depends on his or her drug habits and the distance traveled to visit the
program. About 800 people use the exchange. Purington noted that about 30
percent to 40 percent of the young people who use the NEP have hepatitis C.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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