Pediatricians group backs needle exchanges

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | February 5, 2006 | CARLA K. JOHNSON

[neverdem]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO -- Pediatricians should speak out in support of needle exchange programs to reduce the spread of HIV among injection drug users, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in a toughened policy statement.

Doctors also should discuss HIV risk with their teenage patients "with a nonjudgmental approach" and offer confidential help if local laws allow, the group says in the statement appearing Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

"If we can help young people avoid a chronic illness that we have no cure for, I would hope people would embrace that idea," said the lead author, Dr. Lisa Henry-Reid of Chicago's John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital.

The previous version of the group's policy, dated 1994, said clean needle programs should be "encouraged and expanded."

Half of new HIV infections in the United States are among people younger than 25, Henry-Reid said.

Unprotected sex is the most common way young people become infected, but sharing dirty needles or having sex with an injection drug user accounts for about 13 percent of youth AIDS cases.

The policy drew criticism from Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, the group that last year blasted the pediatricians' academy for its support of over-the-counter emergency contraception.

"The recommendation will not rescue patients and neither does it promote healthy behavior," Wright said. "Instead, they have been promoting programs that encourage riskier activities."

The new policy statement says of needle exchange programs, which let addicts trade dirty syringes for clean ones: "Pediatricians should advocate for unencumbered access to sterile syringes and improved knowledge about decontamination of injection equipment."

The beefed-up wording is based on research showing the programs reduce HIV infection, said Dr. Peter Havens of the Medical College of Wisconsin, a member of the committee that wrote the policy. Needle exchange programs can include counseling to further reduce risky behavior, but opponents say they work against efforts to fight drug abuse.

Congress has banned federal funding of needle exchange programs, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they can reduce the spread of disease without increasing drug use.

Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia have needle exchange programs, according to the nonprofit North American Syringe Exchange Network.

On the Net:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org/

[neverdem]

It's hard for me to imagine why someone could engage in intravenous drug abuse. I've never heard that the studies on needle exchanges don't decrease the spread of more disease. If the numbers are true, then first, do no harm.

[Jeff Chandler]

Liberals. Bah!

[endthematrix]

IIRC there's a FReeper from down under that is a needle exchange advocate that may chime in. Dasher, is it you?

I think there should be a program to reduce further diseases and one to STOP the addiction. My Aunt works in a county AIDS/HIV program. It's sickens me talking to her at the office over a HUGE bowl of free condoms for the taking.

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[Darkwolf377]

There are several of those in the shelter where I work. I think some folks would be surprised at how FEW of them get used. Libs seem to believe that people who've been irrespobsible with their lives in terms of drinking, drugging and unsafe sex will suddenly start using a condom all the time. They're wrong.

There are programs to stop addiction. There's one element never mentioned in discussions of budget cuts and such, and that is the very large number of addicts who have no desire to quit OR keep trying and only stay clean a few days here and there. (Usually they break out right around the first of the month, when their SSI checks come in. Then they get a hotel room together and drink or get high till the money runs out.) There's nothing that can be done about them, and the libs pretend they don't exist, but they're the majority.

[winston2]

(from article) federal funding of needle exchange programs

First - I think it is stupid for tax payers to be forced to fund the imprudent choices of others.

Second - If that must be the case - let us make it a states rights point and carry out a grand experiment. We have fifty states that can prove if there is merit in practically any type of decision.

[winston2]

federal funding of needle exchange programs

This makes about as much sense as if I were to want the government to provide me with a radar detector so I could violate highway speed limits without having so many problems.

[Skooz]

They buy their own dope, let the buy their own needles.

[DBeers]

Doctors also should discuss HIV risk with their teenage patients "with a nonjudgmental approach"

We must not hurt their "feelings" -it is not as if this is a life or death issue.

/sarcasm off