Pubdate: Fri, 25 Nov 2005
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Margaret Munro, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

RESEARCHERS CALL ON JAILS TO OFFER CONVICTS STERILE SYRINGES

Addicted Prisoners At High Risk Of Contracting AIDS

AIDS researchers are calling on the Correctional Service of Canada to 
make sterile syringes freely available in prisons for pilot studies 
to try to curb the spread of HIV among drug-using inmates.

Researchers from the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS write in 
the journal Lancet today that the problem is made worse because 
accepted disease-prevention methods, such as needle exchanges, are 
rarely available to prisoners. "There is an urgent need to ensure 
that standards of HIV prevention in prisons are consistent with the 
best available evidence and the standards outlined in international 
guidelines," say the researchers.

Co-author Thomas Kerr said in an interview the fastest growing HIV 
epidemic in many parts of the world is among intravenous drug users, 
who are frequently in and out of prison. And there is mounting 
evidence from Canada and elsewhere that prisons are incubators for the disease.

"We have found evidence locally, which is consistent with what people 
have found in other countries, that incarceration is associated with 
HIV infection, that drug use occurs in prisons and a lot of high-risk 
behaviour such as syringe exchange happens," says Kerr. "It's a very 
dangerous dynamic."

Convicts interviewed for one recent study by B.C. HIV researchers 
reported seeing syringes go through more than 30 people's hands.

Corrections Canada is well aware it has a problem. And it is taking 
steps to prevent the spread of infection by providing convicts with 
condoms and sterile tattooing equipment and drug treatment.

Kerr says more needs to be done, such as pilot projects to assess the 
use of needle exchanges, which make sterile syringes available to 
intravenous drug users. They are widely used to prevent the spread of 
HIV in city and community settings.

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, an advocacy group pushing for 
years for needle exchanges in Canadian prisons. Corrections Canada is 
exploring the idea and has asked the Public Health Agency of Canada 
for input, says Christa McGregor, a media officer with CSC.

The health agency is reviewing evidence on the effectiveness of 
needle exchanges and visiting foreign prisons that already provide 
inmates with syringes, McGregor said. She says Corrections Canada 
expects the health agency's recommendations by the end of March.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth