Low-threshold treatment programs are harm reduction-based health care centers targeted towards people who use substances. [1] "Low-threshold" programs are programs that make minimal demands on the patient, offering services without attempting to control their intake of drugs, and providing counselling only if requested. Low-threshold programs may be contrasted with "high-threshold" programs, which require the user to accept a certain level of control and which demand that the patient accept counselling and cease all drug use as a precondition of support. [2]
Low-threshold treatment programs are distinct from simple needle exchange programs, and may include comprehensive healthcare and counseling services. [1] [3] The International Journal of Drug Policy in its volume 24 published an Editorial which endeavoured to define a service known to be "low-threshold", based on some popular and known criteria. According to that Editorial, low-threshold services for drug users can be defined as those which offer services to drug users; do not impose abstinence from drug use as a condition of service access; and endeavour to reduce other documented barriers to service access. [4] Beyond comprehensive needle exchange services, other examples of low-threshold, community-based programs include those that support people who use alcohol or drugs to consider positive or health protective changes without a demand for "recovery," such as those piloted in New York City in the 1990s as "recovery readiness" efforts to bolster HIV prevention. [5] [6]
Injection drug users (IDUs) are at risk of a wide range of health problems arising from non-sterile injecting practices, complications of the drug itself or of the lifestyle associated with drug use and dependence. [7] Furthermore, unrelated health problems, such as diabetes, may be neglected because of drug dependence. Sharing of health information with police, or requirements that patients abstain from all illegal drug use prior to receiving support are further impediments to health seeking, or require patients to lie about drug use in order to receive other lifesaving services. [8] For all these reasons, despite their increased health care needs, IDUs do not have the required access to care or may be reluctant to use conventional services. [9] Consequently, their health may deteriorate to a point at which emergency treatment is required, [10] with considerable costs to both the IDUs and the health system. Accordingly, harm reduction based health care centers, also known as targeted health care outlet or low-threshold health care outlet for IDUs have been established across a range of settings utilising a variety of models. [1] These targeted outlets provide integrated, low-threshold services within a harm-reduction framework targeting IDUs, and sometimes include social and/or other services. Where a particular service is not provided, referral and assistance with access is available. In 2007, for example, 33% of all US needle-syringe programs (NSPs) provided on-site medical care, and 7% provided buprenorphine treatment. [11] Similarly, in many European countries NSP outlets serve as low-threshold primary health care centers targeting primarily IDUs. [12]
These targeted outlets vary widely and may be either "distributive", providing basic harm reduction services and simple healthcare with facilitated referrals to specialist services, or "one-stop-shops" where a range of services including specialist services are provided onsite. The services being offered by these outlets range from simple needle and syringe provision, to expanded services including basic and preventive primary healthcare, hepatitis B and A vaccinations, hepatitis C testing, counselling, tuberculosis screening and sometimes opioid maintenance therapy. Some centers offer hepatitis, HIV treatment and dental care. [13] The goal of these outlets is to provide: (1) opportunistic health care, [14] (2) increased temporal and spatial availability of health care, (3) trustworthy services of health care, (4) cost-effective mode of health care, (5) targeted and tailored services. [15]
In the United States as of 2011, 211 NSPs were known to be operating in 32 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Indian Nations. [16] The bulk of funding has come from state and local governments, [13] since for most of the last several decades, federal funding for needle exchange programs has been specifically banned. [17]
Globally, as of 2008, at least 77 countries and territories offer NSPs with varying structures, aims, and goals. Some countries use needle exchange services as part of integrated programs to contain drug use, while others aim simply to contain HIV infection as their top priority, considering a reduction in the incidence of drug use as a much lower priority. [18] Acceptance of NSPs vary widely from country to country. On the one hand, in Australia and New Zealand, electronic dispensing machines are available at selected locations such as the Auckland needle exchange and the Christchurch needle exchange, allowing needle exchange service 24 hours to registered users. [19] On the other hand, over half of the countries in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa retain the death penalty for drug offenses, although some have not carried out executions in recent years. [20]
Low-threshold programs offering needle exchange have faced much opposition on political and moral grounds. [21] Concerns are often expressed that NSPs may encourage drug use, or may actually increase the number of dirty needles in the community. [22] Another fear is that NSPs may draw drug activity into the communities in which they operate. [23] It has also been argued that in fighting disease, needle exchanges take attention away from bigger drug problems, and that, contrary to saving lives, they actually contribute to drug-related deaths. [24] Even in Australia, which is considered a leading country in harm reduction, [15] a survey showed that a third of the public believed that NSPs encouraged drug use, and 20% believed that NSPs dispensed drugs. [25] In the United States, the ambivalent public attitude towards NSPs is often reflected in police interference, with 43% of NSP program managers reporting frequent (at least monthly) client harassment, 31% reporting frequent confiscation of clients' syringes, 12% reporting frequent client arrest, and 26% reporting uninvited police appearances at program sites. [26] A single 1997 study which showed a correlation between frequent program use and elevated rates of HIV infection among IDUs in Vancouver, Canada, [27] has become widely cited by opponents of NSPs as demonstrating their counter-productiveness. [28] [29]
Authors from the 1997 Vancouver study have, in multiple publications, issued disclaimers against the misuse of their work by opponents of NSPs. They point out that frequent attendees of the program tended to be young and often indulged in extreme high-risk behaviors. The 1997 results were hence of statistically biased sampling. [28] [29] They have emphasized that the correct message to be derived from their 1997 study can be read in the title of their work: "Needle exchange is not enough". [27] This is the same message presented by many other articles since. [13] [30] [31] [32]
Comprehensive, systematic surveys of the costs and effectiveness of low-threshold primary healthcare programs are not available due to the heterogeneity of these programs and the study designs. [33] [34] Narrower focus studies dealing solely with the needle exchange issue are abundant, however, and generally support the thesis that NSPs reduce the risk of prevalence of HIV, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases. These studies suggest that such outlets improve the overall health status of IDUs and save on the health budget by reducing episodes in emergency departments and tertiary hospitals. [21] [30] [35] [36] In Australia, monitoring of drug users participating in NSPs showed the incidence of HIV among NSP clients to be essentially identical to that of the general population. [32] [37] Fears that NSPs may draw drug activity into the communities in which they operate are contradicted by a study that showed that by far the greatest number of clients of an NSP in Chicago came to the area to exchange needles (60%) rather than to buy drugs (3.8%). [38]
Internationally, support for the effectiveness of low-threshold programs including needle exchange have come from studies conducted in Afghanistan, [39] China, [40] Spain, [41] Taiwan, [42] Estonia, [43] Canada, [44] Iran, [45] and many other countries. However, in many countries, there is strong opposition to such programs. [20] [46] [47]
Despite the lack of randomized clinical trials demonstrating the impact of low-threshold services, [33] [34] [48] the available evidence, barriers to service access and the late presentation of seriously ill IDUs to hospital, suggests the ongoing need for targeted and low-threshold services. In addition, prevention of HIV and hepatitis C transmission is clearly possible for those unable or unwilling to stop injecting drug use, and a range of countries using low-threshold approach have achieved control or virtual elimination of HIV transmission among people who inject drugs. [49] For these reasons, organizations ranging from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, [50] the Centers for Disease Control, [51] the American Bar Association, [52] the American Medical Association, [53] the American Psychological Association, [54] the World Health Organization, [55] the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction [56] and many others have endorsed low-threshold programs including needle exchange.
Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of intentional practices and public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. Harm reduction is used to decrease negative consequences of recreational drug use and sexual activity without requiring abstinence, recognizing that those unable or unwilling to stop can still make positive change to protect themselves and others.
A needle and syringe programme (NSP), also known as needle exchange program (NEP), is a social service that allows injecting drug users (IDUs) to obtain clean and unused hypodermic needles and associated paraphernalia at little or no cost. It is based on the philosophy of harm reduction that attempts to reduce the risk factors for blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
Needle sharing is the practice of intravenous drug-users by which a needle or syringe is shared by multiple individuals to administer intravenous drugs such as heroin, steroids, and hormones. This is a primary vector for blood-borne diseases which can be transmitted through blood. People who inject drugs (PWID) are at an increased risk for Hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV due to needle sharing practices. From 1933 to 1943, malaria was spread between users in the New York City area by this method. Afterwards, the use of quinine as a cutting agent in drug mixes became more common. Harm reduction efforts including safe disposal of needles, supervised injection sites, and public education may help bring awareness on safer needle sharing practices.
An injection is the act of administering a liquid, especially a drug, into a person's body using a needle and a syringe. An injection is considered a form of parenteral drug administration; it does not involve absorption in the digestive tract. This allows the medication to be absorbed more rapidly and avoid the first pass effect. There are many types of injection, which are generally named after the body tissue the injection is administered into. This includes common injections such as subcutaneous, intramuscular, and intravenous injections, as well as less common injections such as intraperitoneal, intraosseous, intracardiac, intraarticular, and intracavernous injections.
A needlestick injury is the penetration of the skin by a hypodermic needle or other sharp object that has been in contact with blood, tissue or other body fluids before the exposure. Even though the acute physiological effects of a needlestick injury are generally negligible, these injuries can lead to transmission of blood-borne diseases, placing those exposed at increased risk of infection from disease-causing pathogens, such as the hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Among healthcare workers and laboratory personnel worldwide, more than 25 blood-borne virus infections have been reported to have been caused by needlestick injuries. In addition to needlestick injuries, transmission of these viruses can also occur as a result of contamination of the mucous membranes, such as those of the eyes, with blood or body fluids, but needlestick injuries make up more than 80% of all percutaneous exposure incidents in the United States. Various other occupations are also at increased risk of needlestick injury, including law enforcement, laborers, tattoo artists, food preparers, and agricultural workers.
AIDS service organizations are community-based organizations that provide support for people affected by HIV/AIDS. This article focuses on HIV/AIDS service organizations in the United States only. However, it is important to note that similar organizations in other countries, such as Canada, also played significant roles during the HIV/AIDS crisis and share many common experiences and challenges.
The first AIDS case identified in Brazil was in 1982. Infection rates climbed exponentially throughout the 1980s, and in 1990 the World Bank famously predicted 1,200,000 cases by 2000, approximately double the actual number that was later reported by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and most international organizations. South and Southeast have 75% or more of this infection. The Northeast has 33% of the population but only 10% of AIDS.
Drug injection is a method of introducing a drug into the bloodstream via a hollow hypodermic needle, which is pierced through the skin into the body. Intravenous therapy, a form of drug injection, is universally practiced in modernized medical care. As of 2004, there were 13.2 million people worldwide who self-administered injection drugs outside of medical supervision, of which 22% are from developed countries.
With less than 0.1 percent of the population estimated to be HIV-positive, Bangladesh is a low HIV-prevalence country.
Since HIV/AIDS was first reported in Thailand in 1984, 1,115,415 adults had been infected as of 2008, with 585,830 having died since 1984. 532,522 Thais were living with HIV/AIDS in 2008. In 2009 the adult prevalence of HIV was 1.3%. As of 2016, Thailand had the highest prevalence of HIV in Southeast Asia at 1.1 percent, the 40th highest prevalence of 109 nations.
Vietnam faces a concentrated HIV epidemic among high-risk groups, including sex workers, and intravenous drug users. There are cases of HIV/AIDS in all provinces of Vietnam, though low testing rates make it difficult to estimate how prevalent the disease is. The known rates among high-risk groups are high enough that there is a risk of HIV/AIDS rates increasing among the general population as well. People who are HIV+ face intense discrimination in Vietnam, which does not offer legal protections to those living with the condition. Stigma, along with limited funding and human research, make the epidemic difficult to control.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), previously called the San Francisco Health Department, is the public health department of the city of San Francisco, California in the US. It has two main divisions: the San Francisco Health Network and Population Health.
The drug policy of Portugal, informally called the "drug strategy", was put in place in 2000, and came into effect in July 2001. Its purpose was to reduce the number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the country, as it was estimated around half of new cases came from injection drug use.
Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust is a Mumbai-based NGO that works with the injecting drug using community since 1995, preventing HIV/AIDS through education and needle-exchange programme & disposals. Using a harm reduction approach, they provide services such as abscess management, basic medical care, counseling, and opioid substitution therapy to their clients. In 2008, Sankalp received the Red Ribbon Award from UNAIDS for their efforts.
HIV prevention refers to practices that aim to prevent the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV prevention practices may be undertaken by individuals to protect their own health and the health of those in their community, or may be instituted by governments and community-based organizations as public health policies.
With an estimated 120,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Colombia is consistent with the epidemic in much of Latin America as a whole, both in terms of prevalence of infection and characteristics of transmission and affected populations. Colombia has a relatively low rate of HIV infection at 0.4%. Certain groups, particularly men who have sex with men, bear the burden of significantly higher rates of infection than the general population. Colombia's health care system and conception of a "right to health", created by the T-760 decision of 2008, have revolutionized access to HIV treatment. Despite this, the quality of health insurance and treatment for HIV has often been disputed.
Gerry Stimson is a British public health social scientist, emeritus professor at Imperial College London from 2004, and an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from 2017. Stimson has over 220 scientific publications mainly on social and health aspects of illicit drug use, including HIV infection. He has sat on numerous editorial boards including AIDS, Addiction, and European Addiction Research, and with Tim Rhodes he was the co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Drug Policy from 2000 to 2016. He is one of the global leaders for research on and later advocacy for harm reduction.
Discrimination against drug addicts is a form of discrimination against people who suffer from a drug addiction.
Richard Elovich is a social psychologist, writer, performance artist, and AIDS activist focusing on harm reduction and low-threshold approaches to drug treatment.
Harm reduction consists of a series of strategies aimed at reducing the negative impacts of drug use on users. It has been described as an alternative to the U.S.'s moral model and disease model of drug use and addiction. While the moral model treats drug use as a morally wrong action and the disease model treats it as a biological or genetic disease needing medical intervention, harm reduction takes a public health approach with a basis in pragmatism. Harm reduction provides an alternative to complete abstinence as a method for preventing and mitigating the negative consequences of drug use and addiction.
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