Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2000 David Syme & Co Ltd
Contact:  250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Author: Darren Gray, Canberra

INTRODUCE RETRACTING SYRINGES, URGE MPS

Federal MPs have called on the government to test retractable syringes in
needle supply and exchange programs in a bid to reduce needle injuries and
the spread of blood-borne viruses such as HIV.

Two Coalition backbenchers have also called on the Federal Government to use
retractable syringes in the defence forces and in all Commonwealth medical
activities.

Bruce Billson, Liberal member for the Frankston-based seat of Dunkley, told
Parliament that needle-supply programs had helped contain HIV and hepatitis
C, but these gains were now at risk.

"There is a genuine fear in the community of contracting life-threatening
diseases as a result of inadvertently becoming the victim of needle-stick
injury caused by a used syringe being left in a public place," he said.

Mr Billson said 90 per cent of needles distributed by some exchanges were
safely returned, but in other areas the return rate was as low as 10 per
cent.

Julia Irwin, a Labor MP whose electorate includes the Sydney suburb of
Cabramatta, said she supported retractable syringes despite their higher
cost.

"Cabramatta, let's face it, is Sydney's heroin mega-market - the best
prices, the biggest supply," she said.

"The grim residue of those urgently needing a hit is discarded syringes in
parks, in lanes, on footpaths, in schoolgrounds and playgrounds, in people's
front yards, in toilet blocks, on window sills and in gutters and trees,"
she said.

Needle injuries hit the headlines in January after Wollongong ironman
competitor Jonathan Crowe stood on a used needle as he prepared for a
competition at Elwood beach. The young ironman experienced an anxious
three-month wait before tests cleared him of HIV and hepatitis B.

Five days after his accident, a nine-year-old boy stood on a syringe at
Melbourne's Seaford beach.

Adelaide Liberal MP Trish Draper called for research to investigate how many
of the syringes not returned to needle supply programs are disposed of
safely.

The push for the use of retractable syringes in the health system is slowly
gaining ground. Last month federal and state health ministers agreed to
develop a national standard for retractable syringes for use by drug users.
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MAP posted-by: Don Beck