Croakey, Dec 22, 2015 Health Minister Sussan Ley’s announcement of PBS listing for new treatments for hepatitis C has been welcomed by Hepatitis NSW as “brilliant news”. Given the high rates of hepatitis C among people in prisons, it is significant that the Government has agreed to fund these medicines for prisoners. However, tackling hepatitis C will also require public health interventions such...
Needle Exchange May Have Prevented More Than 100 New HIV Infections in Washington DC, Saving $44 Million
hivandhepatitis.com, 08 September 2015 A federal policy change allowing funding of syringe exchange programs in Washington, DC, averted 120 new HIV infections relative to the number that likely would have occurred had the funding ban remained in place, saving approximately $44 million, according to a mathematical modeling study published in the September 4 edition of AIDS and Behavior. Read more...
Union resistance could stymie prison needle exchange program: researcher
Guardian, Monday 19 October 2015 16.07 AEDT A senior blood-borne diseases researcher, Associate Professor Mark Stoové, says Australia’s first prison needle and syringe program flagged for trial in an ACT jail is most likely doomed because of the influence of a union and its members. Stoové criticised the Community and Public Sector Union’s resistance to a proposal by the ACT government to trial a...
20 year report on Needle and Syringe Program attendees in Australia
Kirby Institute, Monday, 15 June 2015 The number of young Australians injecting drugs has declined over 20 years, heroin and methamphetamine remain the two most commonly reported drugs last injected, and transmission of HIV related to injecting drug use has been efficiently contained, according to a 20 year report released today… Read more here Key findings: 20 Year ANSPS_KeyFindings.pdf...
Prisoners with hepatitis will get $2.2m help to treat infections, but no CNPs
The Age, April 9, 2015 – 5:53PM
The Victorian government is spending $2.2 million on giving hundreds of prisoners better access to hepatitis treatments but will not consider a needle and syringe exchange to prevent more infections.
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Safe injection facilities: more than just a place to shoot drugs
The Conversation, 4 March 2015, 9.53pm AEDT
A few years ago I visited a storefront building called InSite – the first supervised injection facility in North America. There, I saw first hand that, paradoxically, providing a safe place to take illicit drugs can be a key component to treating addiction.
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