Prevention Point Pittsburgh FAQ’s
Why do we need needle exchange services?
How many injection drug users are in Pittsburgh?
Are Prevention Point’s services legal?
Is needle exchange effective in reducing the spread of disease?
Why not just focus on getting people into treatment?
Who endorses Needle Exchange?
Why do we need needle exchange services?
The spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C due to injection drug use has been declared a public health emergency. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that injection drug use has directly and indirectly accounted for one third of AIDS cases since the epidemic began. The CDC estimates that 3.9 million Americans are infected with the Hepatitis C virus, and IDU’s represent the largest single risk group. Incidence of HCV rates among injection drug users have surpassed 50 percent in many studies and almost reached 100 percent in others.
How many injection drug users are in Pittsburgh?
There are an estimated 11,981 injection drug users in the Pittsburgh area according to a recent report in the
Journal of Urban Health
(Friedman et. al., Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. 81, No. 3, c The New York Academy of Medicine 2004).
Are Prevention Point’s services legal?
Yes. Our needle exchange services are authorized by both the Allegheny County Board of Health and The Allegheny County Council through County Ordinance # 3671-08.
Is needle exchange effective in reducing the spread of disease?
From 1991 to 2000, the federal government funded eight major reports on the effectiveness of needle exchange programs in preventing HIV among persons who inject drugs. The reports all concluded that needle exchange programs met the congressionally mandated criteria:
- that needle exchange programs do slow the spread of injection-related HIV and
- that needle exchange programs do not increase levels of drug use.
(National Commission on AIDS, General Accounting Office, University of California, National Research Council and Institutes of Medicine, Office of Technology Assessment of U.S. Congress, National Institutes of Health Consensus statement, report by Surgeon General David Satcher)
An evaluation of Prevention Point Pittsburgh revealed a valuable impact on risk behaviors of needle exchange participants. Based on risk assessment interviews conducted with program participants, 70.6% of program participants shared syringes either currently or at some time in their life. Upon the follow-up survey administered after at least three months of participants using the needle exchange program, this number dropped to 6%. This indicates a reduction in needle sharing by 64%. Through these surveys, it was also discovered that 53% of participants reported a reduction in the number of injections per day at the three-month follow-up, indicating an actual reduction in drug use.
Why not just focus on getting people into treatment?
Needle exchange actually to serves as an effective conduit to drug treatment. There is solid research demonstrating that needle exchange programs increase entry into drug treatment services.
Prevention Point Pittsburgh works closely with drug treatment facilities all over the region to help clients ready to become drug-free. In fact, PPP has made over 1,000 drug treatment referrals through our case management program.
However, lack of available drug treatment for all who need it is an unfortunate systemic reality. Clients who are ready to stop using often face barriers such as long waiting lists and no insurance, preventing them from receiving the help they need, thus creating further urgency of the need for sterile syringes, as well as better access to treatment.
Needle exchange programs are designed to help keep clients alive and as healthy as possible during periods of use, delivering critical health services that prevent drug use from exploding into the irreversible realm of life-threatening disease or death.
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Medical Association
- American Society of Addiction Medicine
- National Institute for Drug Abuse
- National Institutes of Health
- American Pharmacological Association
- American Public Health Association
- Association of State and Territory Health Officers
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- National Academy of Sciences
- National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors
- President's AIDS Advisory Committee (George Bush, Sr., and William J. Clinton's administrations)
- United States Conference of Mayors
- World Health Organization
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