hepatitis

By Christina Toth, The Times

 

Abbotsford's mental heath and addictions committee began to form a questionnaire on local harm reduction practises on Tuesday as part of its task to find out how addictions are managed in the city.

 

The group was given its working mandate on June 7, when the council voted 6-3 to review a zoning bylaw that restricts "harm reduction" facilities. These include services such as stationary and mobile needle exchanges and free-standing methadone clinics.

 

The bylaw drew criticism from those who treat intravenous drug users, who pointed out in May that Abbotsford has the third highest rate of Hepatitis C in the province.

 

CBC News

 

The first needle exchange office in western P.E.I. opened Wednesday in Alberton.

 

The office is located at St. Martha's house, which is attached to the Western Hospital. It will be open every Wednesday afternoon.

 

There are two other needle exchange offices in the province — one in Charlottetown at the Professional Boardwalk Centre on Water Street, and the other in Summerside at the Harbourside Medical Centre.

 

Dr. Lamont Sweet, P.E.I.'s deputy chief health officer, said there is still a need for more needle exchange offices.

 

"We're getting hepatitis C cases, 375 approximately in the last 10 years, of new cases," he said. "Now, 90 to 95 per cent of all new cases are due to sharing needles."

By Wawmeesh G. Hamilton - Alberni Valley News

 

Providing sanitary drug supplies will stem the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, says Vancouver Island Health Authority chief medical health officer Dr. Lorna Medd.

 

City councillors listened as Medd gave a presentation on an initiative that will see local health officials distribute crack kits to Port Alberni’s marginalized drug community.

 

Medical staff will administer the initiative through the local health unit, and will begin distributing the kits shortly, Medd said.

 

Supplying the kits doesn’t enable drug users, but rather keeps them healthy until they can pursue healing options, she said.

 

By Grant Granger - Abbotsford News

 

A harm reduction policy will be considered by Abbotsford council, but the decision didn't come without dissension.

 

City staff's request to prepare a report on developing a policy was approved, but three councillors objected, saying it was going over old ground.

 

Although the city does not have a policy, in 2005 Abbotsford instituted a harm reduction use bylaw that prohibited methadone treatment clinics and dispensing facilities (except where administered by a pharmacist), needle exchanges, mobile dispensing vans and safe injection sites.

 

The Harper Government’s "tough on crime" stance ignores reality in favour of dogma.

 

The trauma of having a parent who was forced to attend a residential school is linked to higher rates of hepatitis C infection among aboriginal young people in B.C., new research suggests.

The research was part of the Cedar Project, a long-term collaborative research project focusing on HIV and hepatitis C infection in young aboriginal drug users in British Columbia.

The project aims to understand the relationship between historical trauma — such as having a parent or grandparent who attended a residential school — and vulnerability to blood-borne diseases.

Researchers had already linked a history of sexual abuse among the young group under study with having a parent who attended a residential school or was involved in the child welfare system.

The prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C is 10 to 20 times higher in the prison population than in the general population. Most prisoners are eventually returned to their families and communities, where they could spread diseases they might not even know they are carrying.

Public health is but one of the concerns. Another is cost — and the fact is that needle-exchange programs are far more cost-efficient than treating patients with incurable, infectious diseases. If there were ever a recipe for short-sighted idiocy the “Recipe for a riot” letter certainly fits the bill.

Wayne Phillips,

Educators For Sensible Drug Policy (EFSDP)

Hamilton, Ont.