JAIL NEEDLE SHARING ACCELERATES SPREAD OF AIDS

Two Studies Documenting Used Syringe-HIV Connection Spur Calls For
Needle Exchange Programs For Prisoners

Up to 15 per cent of incarcerated drug users report injecting heroin
and cocaine while behind bars, according to one of two new studies
that say Canadian prisons are contributing to the spread of the virus
that causes AIDS.

The findings are so worrisome the researchers at the B.C. Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS, who conducted the studies, have renewed calls
for in-prison needle exchanges to reduce the risk of dirty syringes
spreading HIV and hepatitis C infections, which are common among inmates.

The sharing of used needles in prisons is "a recipe for disaster,"
says Dr. Evan Wood, a principal investigator on both studies.

The first, in this week's advance online edition of the Journal of
Public Health published by Oxford University, followed 1,247
intravenous drug users, half of whom spent time in jails at some point
during the six-year study.

Almost 15 per cent of those incarcerated reported injecting heroin or
cocaine in prison, most of them with used syringes.

The second study, published in the Drug and Alcohol Review this week,
followed another group -- 902 injection drug users at Insite,
Vancouver's controversial supervised injection facility. Approximately
one-third reported spending time behind bars at each six-month
follow-up in the two-year-long study and five per cent reported
injecting drugs while incarcerated.

"People who had been incarcerated were more likely to report syringe
sharing and more likely to be infected with HIV and hepatitis C as
compared to non-incarcerated injection drug users," the researchers
said.

Wood said in an interview the studies likely underestimate the rate of
syringe sharing, which many people are reluctant to admit.

He said a "coordinated public health response" is needed to address
the risk of disease transmission from prisons to not only protect
inmates, but the "home communities" they return to.

"We're doing everything we can to try and stop people from sharing
syringes," Wood said, referring to community-based addiction treatment
programs and needle exchanges across the country.

"Then, you follow drug users over time to see where we are falling
short and prison jumps out as a reason people are lending and
borrowing syringes."

The drug users in the studies were incarcerated in B.C. correctional
facilities.

But Wood and his colleagues suspect syringe sharing is common in jails
across Canada.

They said the findings underline the "urgent need" to expand
harm-reduction programs in Canada's municipal, provincial and federal
correctional institutions.