HEALTH BOARD OKS NEEDLE EXCHANGE

The Allegheny County Board of Health yesterday approved a regulation
that will allow the continued operation of a needle exchange program
for intravenous drug users.

"We're incredibly pleased," said Renee Cox, executive director of
Prevention Point Pittsburgh, the region's sole provider of exchange
services. "All in all, it's worked out well. It does grant us a little
more permanency now that we have formal regulations."

The regulation must go to the county chief executive and County
Council for final approval.

The program's legality had been called into question six months ago by
some council members who were concerned that it had operated with the
board's authorization under a declaration of public health emergency,
rather than under an ordinance.

Prevention Point, which has operated needle exchange services for four
years, aims to reduce the spread of dangerous infections such as HIV
and hepatitis among intravenous drug users.

In May, the health board drafted a regulation that drew complaints
from both local and national experts. It would have required
exchangers to give their names and other identifying information, and
prohibited so-called "secondary exchange," in which registered program
users obtain clean supplies for others who hadn't officially signed
up.

The health board made significant changes to the regulation to address
the concerns.

"They restored anonymity of exchangers, which is absolutely
fundamental to the operation of the needle exchange," Ms. Cox said.
"They also allowed for secondary exchange, which will expand the reach
of this small program."

Some public officials preferred restrictive measures while others
leaned to a more permissive stance, said county Health Department
Director Dr. Bruce W. Dixon.

The regulation formally codifies what the health board had sanctioned
under the emergency declaration, he added.

"Part of the problem when you formalize things, you have to set the
rules down in stone," Dr. Dixon said. "That's what some of this debate
and discussion was about."

In other business, he expressed appreciation for County Council's
Health and Human Services Committee efforts to ban smoking in workplaces.

Next week, Dr. Dixon will go to Harrisburg to testify before a state
House committee.

In addition to talking about the local situation, he will encourage
development of a measure that would apply to all of
Pennsylvania.

Dr. Dixon told the board that a project manager has been selected for
the construction of the department's long-awaited biosafety level 3
building, better known as the bioterror lab.

It will be built on the Clack Health Center site, in
Lawrenceville.

"They will put the shovel in the dirt on Sept. 18," he
said.

The lab should be finished in about a year.

The health board also set the price of this year's flu shot at $25.