needle exchange

By BILL CLEVERLEY, Timescolonist.com

 

Sharing of dirty needles by Victoria's injection-drug users increased substantially after the city's only fixed needle exchange closed in 2008, according to a study by the University of Victoria's Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.

 

And rates of needle sharing — a practice that contributes to the spread hepatitis C and HIV — have remained significantly higher in Victoria than Vancouver over the past three years, researchers say.

 

"There's more reusing of needles as well. So people are using the same needle over and over again, which poses a number of other health problems like abscesses," said study co-author Andrew Ivsins, a UVic graduate student.

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CBC News

 

Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital emergency department is launching a survey of homeless people in an attempt to find ways to better serve them.

 

Dr. Kathryn Dong, who is helping to organize the study, said she feels underlying causes of homeless people's health issues are not being addressed.

 

"We were seeing these patients and doing a good job in emerg, but often sending them back without resolving their underlying issues and their housing problems, and their addiction issues," Dong said. "It was just kind of a vicious cycle."

 

She and her colleagues plan to ask 400 homeless people how the hospital and its staff can better serve them.

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The Edson Leader

 

HIV West Yellowhead officials are still looking for regional board members.

 

The Jasper-based organization put out a call for three more board members earlier his summer. While a Hinton board member has been secured, executive director Andrea Watson said two more persons have expressed interest but have not committed as of yet.

 

Watson is hoping to recruit two more board members — one from Edson and one from Whitecourt.

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EMC News- Shad Qadri has enjoyed being a city councillor so much that he has decided to run again.

 

The Stittsville councillor filed his papers for re-election with his wife Theresa, daughter Ferzana and son Shad Jr. by his side on Aug. 5 at the Kanata Client Service Offices.

 

Qadri who calls Stittsville his extended family, feels family is so important he decided Thursday was the day to officially seek re-election because his son was in town from PEI.

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By Victoria Handysides, Here NB

 

Moncton - The 90s, a decade full of hot topics, is behind us: O.J. Simpsonl, the Gulf War, the world's first cloned sheep, the massacre at Columbine and the disease known as AIDS.

 

It's insensitive and callous, but true: any panicked outcry about the sexually transmitted disease has been muted to mere mumbling. It rarely makes headlines, and (forgive the phrasing) isn't the "hot" disease that it once was.

 

"This is a disease whose patient's faces aren't plastered across billboards. They're not thought of as survivors or heroes," AIDS Moncton spokeswoman Kate Doyle said.

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By Niamh Scallan, TheTyee.ca

 

Condoms and clean needles. Two basic remedies that could help stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic dead in its tracks.

 

It's that simple, says Maxine Davis, executive director of the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation and Canada's leading voice when it comes to AIDS treatment.

 

If only the government would listen.

 

At the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna last month, Davis and Canadian colleagues watched as their government, refusing to stand behind the Vienna Declaration, slipped from its respected leadership role in the global fight against the disease.

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By Richard Elliott, Vancouver Sun

 

Re: Ideology, not reality, drives Tories' AIDS policy, July 24

 

Peter McKnight's column nicely showcased the flawed logic in the government's approach to HIV/AIDS, where relevant evidence is ignored.

 

One area not specifically addressed is the high rates of HIV and hepatitis C in Canada's prisons. We argue -with ample evidence to back it up -that providing clean needles and syringes in prisons would help curtail the spread of disease. More than 90 per cent of people in prison eventually return to society. Doesn't it make sense to ensure that the least possible number of them acquire infections while inside?

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By IAN MCINROY, BARRIE EXAMINER

 

Keeping drug-laced syringes out of harm's way is the goal of a Barrie business.

 

The Aerarium Group is installing hygienic syringe disposal units in all its public washrooms at the Barrie by the Bay commercial centre, located at 80 Bradford St., to keep needles off the streets.

 

"We cannot hide our head in the sands and ignore the reality of the situation," Aerarium president Steve Sperling said, of the proactive approach to the problem. "This will ensure the ability to safely dispose of these products privately."

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By: Dustin Walker, Nanaimo Daily News

 

Health authorities should go beyond providing clean crack pipes to addicts and establish "crack-inhalation facilities" to help tackle a growing problem with the drug, says a health sciences researcher.

 

Simon Fraser University's Benedikt Fischer and his team examined the health and social characteristics of 148 primary crack cocaine users in Nanaimo, Campbell River and Prince George. The study, which will be published in Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, concludes that more targeted prevention and treatment programs are needed in smaller communities.

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CBC News

 

The U.N.'s top investigator on torture and punishment warned Friday that overcrowded prisons are breeding grounds for AIDS.

 

Often, inmates are held in inhumane conditions in which the HIV virus is spread through the use of non-sterile drug injection equipment, sexual contacts, tattooing and sharing of razors, Manfred Nowak said.

 

"There is a global prison crisis," he told an international AIDS conference in Vienna.

 

Nowak, who has visited detention facilities around the world, urged authorities to inform prisoners of the risk of HIV transmission and to offer them free condoms, HIV testing and counselling.

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