Lifting the Federal Ban on Syringe Exchange: A First Step and Breakthrough Moment for Women’s Health in this Country.

First a brief summary of our current  efforts to have the federal ban lifted on Syringe Exchange in the US, as of July 30, 2008:

Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) and 25 cosponsors filed a bill that was aimed at reducing the spread of blood-borne diseases that may be transmitted through infected syringes, such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. It would remove all restrictions on the use of federal funds for needle exchange programs (NEPs). The bill, the Community AIDS and Hepatitis Prevention\(CAHP) Act of 2008 (H.R. 6680) was introduced in the 110^th Congress, in 2007-2008. This bill - which had been proposed in a previous session of Congress - never became law, but it was referred to the Subcommittee on Health. A bill must be passed by both the House and the Senate and then signed by the President before it becomes law.   Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven't passed are cleared from the books.

However, members often reintroduce bills that did not come up for debate under a new number in the next session.  So in this current 111^th Session of Congress (2009-2010), the Community AIDS and Hepatitis Prevention (CAHP) Act was reintroduced as (H.R. 3293) 

Activist across the country have been pushing hard to make sure the bill passes without any amendments that would weaken existing syringe exchange programs and these concerns prompted them to issue Action Alerts for citizens to call and write their congressional leaders.

On Thursday July 7^th after staging a demonstration in the Capitol Rotunda, (27) activists got arrested for trying to convince Congress that clean needles save lives.

The following day Rep. David Obey (D-WI) announced his committee's decision to lift the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange. They removed language from an appropriations that, for the past two decades, has banned the use of federal funds for syringe exchange programs as a part of the Appropriations bill  (H.R. 3293)  to Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education:  which oversees funding for the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Labor along with related agencies.

However, the committee included a rider offered by Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia and accepted by the Democrat-led Appropriations Committee. It would bar all funding for syringe exchange - including the District of Columbia syringe exchange programs - if they are located within 1,000 feet "of a public or private day care center, elementary school, vocational school, secondary school, college, junior college, or university, or any public swimming pool, park, playground, video arcade, or youth center, or an event sponsored by any such entity."

This would make many currently-operating syringe exchanges around the country unfundable and make it extremely hard to start new exchanges in strategic locations in urban areas.

Jul 24, 2009 the full US House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that, for the first time in nearly 20 years, allows federal funding of syringe exchange - and turned down an amendment from Rep. Souder that would have re-instated the ban.  Please note* that is was not the Serrano bill that passed... Instead, the ban was lifted in the Appropriations bill in the House.   The bill passed in the House by roll call vote. The totals were 264 Ayes, 153 Nays, 16 Present/Not Voting. The House passed appropriations bill in the amount of $730.5 billion "to fund health, education and labor programs in fiscal 2010.

This is a first step and hopefully a breakthrough moment for women's health in this country:

Since the epidemic began, injection drug use has directly and indirectly accounted for more than one-third (36%) of AIDS cases in the United States.  Sharing syringes and other equipment for drug injection is a well-known route of HIV transmission, yet injection drug use contributes to the epidemic's spread far beyond the circle of those who inject. 

Syringe Exchange Programs have the potential to significantly reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis-C (HCV), not only among Intravenous Drug Users (IDU), but also among their spouses, sexual partners and unborn children.   Among women who contracted HIV infection heterosexually, 63% were sex partners of IDUs and had no history of injection themselves.

For injection drug users who cannot or will not stop injecting drugs, using sterile needles and syringes remains the safest, most effective approach for limiting HIV transmission.

IDUs are at even greater risk for other serious drug use-related illnesses, including hepatitis C and overdose. IDUs often struggle with multiple health risks due to social, economic and psychological factors. HIV prevention may not be their top concern since they face other more pressing daily challenges such as addiction, poverty, incarceration, homelessness, stigma, depression, mental illness and past trauma.

So the fight for Syringe Exchange doesn't end here.  The fight continues.  Now the Senate must pass their own version of the bill - in which we hope there will not be that restriction that will limit access to funds for many existing and possible exchanges. And the, there will be a "conference committee" where a group of Senators and Representatives will compromise into one version of the bill.   

But just think, for  the 1^st time in US History  a National AIDS Strategy may  be coming together with  Prevention Justice as its' cornerstone in the form of National Syringe Exchange as a  structural intervention toward  reducing the Incidence of HIV in the United States  .  Now on to the Senate!

Says Who:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-6680

http://www.google.com/search?q=health+gap+coalition&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS315US315&aq=t&aq=t

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/158985.php

http://www.thebodypro.com/content/news/art52744.html