Federal health officials support needle exchange
to fight HIVFederal health officials reversed an earlier position and offered support for needle-exchange programs to fight against HIV transmission. But their support fell short of making federal funds available to support exchange programs.
The announcement came through a report Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, PhD, supplied to a Senate subcommittee Feb. 18. "Overall, these studies indicate that needle exchange programs can have an impact on bringing difficult-to-reach populations into systems of care that offer drug dependency services, mental health, medical, and support services. These studies also indicate that needle exchange programs can be effective component of a comprehensive strategy to prevent HIV and other blood-borne infectious diseases," according to the report.
Shalala, however, did not go as far as to repeal the current ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs. Now, the responsibility for lifting the ban has gone to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairperson of the subcommittee on labor, health, and education.
More than 50 cities are running needle exchange programs, but they are funded through private or local funds.
The agency's recommendation echoed an earlier recommendation from a National Institutes of Health panel. The NIH panel reviewed studies on the effectiveness of exchange programs and found they did not increase the number of drug users and did not increase the amount of discarded drug paraphernalia.
"Community and policy level changes made through government leadership in severely AIDS-stricken countries like Uganda and Thailand have set model examples of how government leaders can coordinate interventions that effectively reduce the numbers of new cases of HIV infection," said panel chairperson David Reiss, MD, professor and director of psychiatric research at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "It's not too late for the political leadership of the United States to follow their example. Policy and legislative change can have rapid, powerful, and positive results, including the potential to save significant healthcare dollars."
The panel released its recommendation at a consensus conference in early February; the conference was sponsored in part by the National Institute of Nursing Research.
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