Syringe Exchange Program
JOHNSON CITY (May 16, 2018) – East Tennessee State University’s Center of Excellence for Inflammation, Infectious Disease and Immunity will now provide new, unused needles and naloxone to people who inject drugs through participation in a new statewide program to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and viral hepatitis.
The Syringe Trade and Education Program of Tennessee (STEP TN) is being developed in collaboration with Cempa Community Care, an AIDS Service Organization in Southeast Tennessee. The harm reduction and education program for individuals who inject drugs is designed to reduce the spread of HIV, viral hepatitis including hepatitis C (HCV) and B (HBV) and other blood-borne infections. The program also provides safe disposal of needles and syringes.
“Other goals of the program include reducing needle stick injuries to law enforcement officers and other emergency personnel and to encourage individuals who inject drugs to enroll in treatment,” said Dr. Jonathan Moorman, a professor of medicine at ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine and section chief for Infectious Diseases at the Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “Education about overdose prevention with naloxone will be provided, along with referrals to substance use, mental health and social services throughout East Tennessee.”
According to data compiled by ETSU’s Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment, there are an estimated 1.3 million people who inject drugs in the United States and an expected 4,000 new HIV infections per year among this group. Another 2.7-3.9 million people in the nation have chronic hepatitis C, with the most common means of transmission being injection drug use.
In Tennessee, reported rates of acute hepatitis C increased 100 percent from 2010-2015 and in 2016 rates of HIV diagnoses among adults and adolescents were 12.8 per 100,000. Tennessee ranked 16th among the 50 states in new HIV diagnoses in the most recent rankings.
“Research indicates public funding of syringe service programs such as STEP TN is associated with lower rates of HIV and greater numbers of health and social services provided,” said Angela Hagaman, director of operations at the ETSU Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment. “Many studies show that syringe exchange programs decrease drug use by connecting people to treatment.”
It is estimated that participants of syringe exchange programs are five times more likely to enter drug treatment than non-participants. Such programs are also proven to decrease the number of used syringes discarded in public places by almost 50 percent.
Data recently collected by Hagaman and others with the Center through ETSU’s Applied Social Research Lab indicate that Tennesseans are largely unaware of the risk of a potential HIV/HCV outbreak, but they are supportive of recommended prevention strategies such as syringe service programs.
The research team recently disseminated their findings to members of the state legislature.
For more information about the STEP TN program, visit STEPTN.org. For more about the local exchange program, contact Lisa Bynum, executive director or Deirdre Gudger, Prevention and Outreach director at ETSU’s Center of Excellence clinic by calling 423-930-8337.