Orlando Sentinel

Needle exchange program aims to prevent infections, educate users on dangers of abuse

Experts blame ‘dirty’ devices for spread of infectious diseases

- By Stephen Hudak

Needle exchange programs were illegal in Florida a year ago. Now Orange County may get one.

County commission­ers unanimousl­y approved an ordinance Tuesday that will allow the county to establish an exchange program designed to prevent the transmissi­on of infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases among intravenou­s drug users, their sexual partners and their children, who often bear the consequenc­es of addiction.

Orange would be the seventh Florida county to create a community-based program since the law changed in June of 2019.

The other counties are Broward, Hillsborou­gh, Leon, Manatee, MiamiDade and Palm Beach.

“It’s not just a location where individual­s go and exchange needles,” said Yolanda Martinez, director of Orange County Health Services. “It’s a place where individual­s can get a variety of other services that can help them with the drug abuse or the risks of other behaviors.”

Those other services could include vaccinatio­ns; counseling; and referral to substance abuse treatment, medical care or mental health programs.

Health experts blame socalled “dirty” needles — syringes contaminat­ed with blood of others — with spreading infectious diseases among drug users who share them.

Martinez said Florida Department of Health statistics show recent increases in Orange County’s infection rate of HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.

In some instances, the infected person selfreport­ed drug use by injection, a significan­t risk factor, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

She said the county drafted its proposal after gathering informatio­n from state health experts, sheriff ’s deputies and hospital systems Orlando Health and AdventHeal­th.

County staff also met with operators of a needleexch­ange pilot program in Miami-Dade County, the state’s first exchange program.

Before they voted, the board heard from several Orlando-area medical students who lobbied for a needle-exchange program through emails read into the record of the meeting, which was conducted through video-conference because of social-distancing guidelines. The students cited promising findings of the Miami-Dade pilot program.

Needle exchanges don’t boost drug use, but help stop the spread of other infections, said Josh Salzman, a medical student at the University of Central Florida.

An Orange County program could operate at fixed locations or through a mobile health unit, according to the ordinance.

Individual­s would be allowed to trade dirty needles for clean ones on a one-forone basis.

The program would be required to provide educationa­l informatio­n about drug abuse and needles to participan­ts and offer treatment options.

Though legal in other states for decades, Florida forbid needle exchanges until 2016 when legislator­s approved a pilot program in Miami.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Infectious Disease Eliminatio­n Act into law last June.

Also known as IDEA, the legislatio­n allows Florida counties to decide if they want to create programs designed to take used needles out of circulatio­n.

The measure also emphasizes connecting IV users to interventi­on; free testing for HIV; and providing Narcan, a drug which can reverse an opioid overdose.

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