NEW RAPID RESULT HIV TEST FOR DRUGUSERS

NEW HIV tests that give results in minutes are being used in Glasgow in a bid to curb an outbreak of the disease among drug users. Around 170 people are believed to have contracted HIV in the current outbreak but it is feared the actual number may be much higher as many drug users do not engage with needle exchange services that offer blood tests.

The new finger pick blood tests can give results straight away and allow health staff to direct the person to treatment immediately.

Before it could take up to two weeks to get blood test results back from a lab, by which time services may have lost contact with the person.

John Campbell, right, Glasgow’s Injecting Equipment Provision Improvement Manager, said: “This was a problem because the people we work with have very chaotic lifestyles, they may not be in the city centre in two weeks. We may get their results back, saying they have tested positive, but we can’t find them to tell them and minimise the risk of further infection.

“With these new tests we have the results in minutes and if they are positive, we can link the person into treatment instantly and if it’s negative, we can provide them with harm reduction advice which will help keep them that way.”

In November, last year, needle exchanges in Greater Glasgow handed out 25,000 needles and sheets of foil but discarded needles are still a concern for the public.

Over a five-month period last year, worried residents reported discarded needles in the Anderston/City/Yorkhill ward on 234 occasions, 200 times more than in any other ward in the city.

Mr Campbell said closing down injecting sites simply moves the problem into the open.

He said: “When public injecting sites on derelict ground are found and fenced off, it often disperses people further into communities. We receive regular complaints about discarded needles.

“The health risk to the public is low, but it is obviously a concern.

“A Safer Drug Consumption Facility would help address this too. It would reduce the number of publicly discarded needles in its vicinity, benefiting communities and businesses.”

A study into the outbreak in recent years, published in the Journal of Infectious diseases found 90% of those with HIV had experienced homelessness and almost half had been in prison. It suggested: “Harm reduction services available in Glasgow may have been difficult to access for those in precarious living situations, often with chaotic lifestyles.”

Mr Campbell is in now doubt the reason for the HIV outbreak and explains the hazardous injecting behaviour of some addicts and the serious health outcomes.

He said: “Undoubtedly, the current HIV outbreak is due to people sharing drug-taking equipment, often on public injecting sites in the city centre.

“Glasgow has some of the best needle exchange services in the world, but it is very hard for us to influence people’s injecting behaviour unless professionals are present when they inject.

“Currently people are injecting outdoors in filthy, sometimes, urine-soaked alleyways or on derelict ground.

“This is causing all sorts of harms from ulcers and maggot-infested wounds to HIV and Hepatitis C infections.”

The rapid HIV tests, which were first piloted by Waverley Care and the city’s Blood Borne Virus team, are currently available at a number of needle exchanges in Glasgow.