Suspension of needle exchange increases HIV risk

Suspension of needle exchange increases HIV risk

By Tom Flanagan

SYDNEY — "Redfern is surely one of the most urgent and obvious places in NSW for a government-funded injecting room. It is not the place to suspend a needle exchange program", said Dr Alex Wodak, director of alcohol and drug services at St Vincent's Hospital, in response to NSW health minister Dr Andrew Refshauge's suspension of the needle exchange service in Caroline Lane, Redfern.

Wodak, writing in the February 2 Sydney Morning Herald, pointed out that the demand for sterile syringes in the area is "exceptionally high". Needle exchange staff had also resuscitated large numbers of drug users who had overdosed, he reported.

Refshauge's move was a knee-jerk response to photographs of a young person shooting up which appeared in the January 31 Sun-Herald. The photographs were accompanied by a series of articles sensationalising the fact that young people use kits from the service to inject heroin.

The person in the photo was described as being "12 to 13" years old. Later in the week it was reported he was 16.

Refshauge's action has been widely condemned by health experts and youth workers.

As the state election campaign gets under way, the Labor and Liberal parties are trying to outdo one another in talking tough on "law and order". The suspension of the service has more to do with the Labor government's fear of being seen as "soft on drugs" than with the health issues.

"The suspension of the needle exchange service will increase the health risks faced by intravenous drug users", explained Dr Tuntuni Bhattacharyya, an inner-city GP and Democratic Socialist candidate in the state seat of Marrickville. "Considering Refshauge is a qualified medical practitioner, his move to suspend the program is particularly alarming."

Refshauge is the Labor member for Marrickville.

Bhattacharyya told Green Left Weekly that the effect of suspending the service will be "to expose intravenous drug users to an increased risk of contacting HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B, as well as septicaemia and other health problems resulting from sharing needles and using unhygienic injecting procedures."

Bhattacharyya added that suspending the service "ignores the necessity of providing young people with clean injecting equipment for exactly the same reason that it must be provided to older people. Withholding clean equipment doesn't stop drug use; it leads to people sharing needles and the spread of HIV."

From GLW issue 348