By Lindsey Wray
Heroin addicts weren’t the only visitors to Baltimore’s Needle Exchange Program on Dec. 8.
A group of six journalists from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh learned about the program as part of the IWMF South Asia Initiative on Women and HIV/AIDS Policymaking. The journalists spent the day observing HIV/AIDS and violence reduction programs in order to see how a city in the United States handles similar issues the journalists face in their home countries. Lessons learned on the trip will inform the journalists’ coverage back in South Asia.
“People [in Baltimore] are working with very limited resources to deal with a big problem, and they're doing it against all odds,” said Sandhya Srinivasan, a consulting editor in India for www.hivaidsonline.in and InfoChange News & Features.
Srinivasan and five other women journalists participated in the South Asia initiative, which was designed to help them respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in their home countries. The IWMF initiative was a partnership with the Centre for Development and Population Activities and the Center for Women Policy Studies. The Baltimore trip featured meetings with individuals and organizations working to reduce drug use and violence and decrease the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
Inside a nondescript recreational vehicle used for the Needle Exchange Program, journalists saw boxes of syringes awaiting intravenous drug users. Run by the Baltimore City Health Department, the program is a risk reduction initiative where used needles are exchanged for clean ones.
Located in Baltimore neighborhoods with high drug use, the NEP’s RVs often park near “shooting galleries,” or boarded up homes where heroin addicts come to get a fix.
“We try to look for the baby steps with these folks,” said Chris Serio-Chapman, bureau chief for community risk reduction services at the Baltimore City Health Department. She emphasized that an achievement can be as simple as getting a few needles out of circulation.
Though Serio-Chapman relishes small accomplishments, the program has had a significant impact on reducing the spread of disease since its inception in 1994. Intravenous drug use rates have fallen 20 percent, and NEP has expanded from two sites to 17, she said. In November 2009 alone, approximately 40,000 syringes were exchanged.
The health department has expanded the capabilities of the RVs beyond needle exchange, Serio-Chapman said. For instance, in addition to referring visitors to drug treatment services, the Needle Exchange Program provides vaccinations for diseases such as hepatitis A and B, and offers pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease testing and birth control. These services are crucial for women who are sex workers, Serio-Chapman said.
"I found it so similar to what’s being done back home, and I could relate to all the things because the problems are the same and the issues are the same,” said Huma Khawar, a freelance writer and consultant in Pakistan who participated in the South Asia initiative.
In addition to the Needle Exchange Program, South Asia initiative participants toured Maryland’s Shock-Trauma Center, where they learned about the Violence Intervention Program, which aims to prevent future violence by Baltimore residents by offering counseling and other services before they leave the hospital.
Participants also spoke with Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of Johns Hopkins University’s AIDS International Training and Research Program, about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Dr. Beyrer is working on a new prevention method that targets high-risk groups by offering them HIV/AIDS drug treatment before they are exposed to the virus in order to prevent infection.
“What I found very interesting was what united them,” journalist Srinvasan said of the day’s activities, “which was dealing in different ways with...poverty, drug abuse and violence and the impact it has on individuals.”
Lindsey Wray is the IWMF’s communications coordinator.