Health District Takes Over From Volunteers in Bremerton, Washington

The local public health district in Bremerton, Wash., is hiring professionals to take over a needle exchange program that's been run by mostly anonymous volunteers for more than four years. The volunteer group was running low on donations to pay for the estimated 200,000 to 300,000 new needles distributed every year to intravenous drug users. It costs more than $30,000 a year to treat one child accidentally infected with HIV from a carelessly discarded needle, said Dr. Scott Lindquist, executive director of the Bremerton-Kitsap County Health District. "If we can prevent that with $30,000, then it's worth it," he said.

Previous efforts to win support from the health district had been unsuccessful. Without district approval, volunteers risked prosecution for possession or distribution of drug paraphernalia under county law. Needle exchange programs have been proven to lower the incidence of HIV in every county where such programs have been studied, Lindquist said. The beginning date and details of the contract with Street Outreach have not been finalized.

Back to other CDC news for March 7, 2002

Previous Updates