Basic HTML Version
Wednesday 22 April 2009 – DAY THREE –
Daily Update
– 5
There was an ‘alarmingly high’ rate of syringe sharing among
injecting drug users in Bangkok, Thomas Kerr of the British
Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/Aids told delegates in
yesterday afternoon’s
Harm reduction in Thailand
session.
Thirty per cent had reported sharing in the last six months, 65
per cent of whom had described multiple borrowing events. The
rates were high by international standards but low by Thai
standards, with up to 50 per cent of IDUs reporting sharing in
some areas.
The main reasons given were being too far from syringe outlets,
pharmacies being closed or, worryingly, pharmacies refusing to give
out needles. While there were undoubtedly misconceptions about
HIV risk in this population, he said, there were also ‘straightforward
social and structural’ factors behind the statistics. ‘Widespread
access to sterile syringes is needed in Thailand now. Failure to
provide this is violating the rights of people who use drugs.’
The Thailand Global Fund Round 8 Project, being launched in
June, would target 12,000 Thai drug users, said Robert Gray of
Population Services International. There had been harm reduction
projects in Thailand for many years but reaching 12,000 people at
one time was something that had never been done before – the
programme would use 75 community pharmacies to distribute free
injecting equipment and condoms to IDUs in Bangkok, before
expanding the service to 150 more pharmacies in other provinces.
There would also be training for police and pharmacists to address
the targeting and stigmatisation of drug users.
Syringe sharing inThailand ‘alarmingly high’
Tuesday afternoon’s
Alcohol policies and social
marketing
session looked at attempts to use the
media to try and change drinking patterns.
Tuari
Potiki of the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) in New
Zealand described an entrenched drinking culture
where young people learned their drinking behaviour
from adults and older peers.
‘New Zealand has a very similar drinking culture to
countries like England, Ireland and Scotland,’ he said.
‘People go out to get tanked. Eighty per cent of the
population describe themselves as regular drinkers, so it’s
very difficult to change behaviour.’
Seventy per cent of police time was spent attending
alcohol related incidents, and there were significant
problems with cheap alcohol and alcohol licensing, he
said. ‘It’s very easy to get a liquor licence, and very hard
to lose it.’
ALAC had been trying to raise awareness, taking a
whole population approach. ‘We didn’t want to vilify
young people for their drinking when they’re just
mimicking the behaviour of adults,’ he said.
‘Social marketing is perceived by some as a soft
option, but it is an important way to get your message
across,’ he told delegates – 26 per cent of people
reported drinking less a year after the campaign. The
organisation had run into controversy with a series of hard
hitting television adverts depicting people vomiting and
children being injured by drunken adults, but it felt it had
needed to make an impact.
‘There were a lot of New Zealand drinkers who didn’t
see their drinking as a problem to them or anyone else,’
he said. ‘But that’s not what our research was telling us.’
Tough messages for
a tough problem
Thailand's harsh anti drug laws result in high levels of imprisonment for
drug users from the Bangkok area,
according to research on effects of
incarceration carried out by The Mit Sampan Harm Reduction Centre,
presented by Kanna Hayashi and Aung Yu Naing.
Twelve former and current drug users had been trained to design, plan and
implement the research, with the findings used to help improve the health of
drug users. The survey of 252 drug users, of which 26 per cent were women,
found 78 per cent had spent time in prison where they were more than twice
as likely to share equipment as drug users in the community. The study
concluded there was a high risk of harm, and a great need for harm reduction
services to be available in Thai jails.
The challenge of providing harm reduction services had been grasped by
Larisa Pintilei (above) and the Department of Penitentiary Institutions in
Moldova. After a long advocacy campaign to persuade prison staff and
governors of the potential benefits, they have been providing harm reduction
services in prisons in Moldova for eight years. The services, including needle
exchange, advocacy services, and provision of condoms, had resulted in a
marked decrease in cases of HIV, and the project being recognised as an
example of best practice.
Inside harm reduction
Larisa Pintilei: providing harm reduction services in Moldova