reached crisis levels in the mid-1990s. As Hurley (1997, p. 1797) reported, ôIn the USA alone, injection-drug use was the direct or indirect cause of almost 26,000 cases of AIDS in 1995, comprising 35% of all cases.ö Needle exchange programs have the potential to directly decrease the rate of HIV transmission by lowering the rate of needle sharing among users and the prevalence of needles contaminated with HIV.
Those in favor of needle exchange programs are typically public health officials or those who work in medicine, social services or other occupations where the HIV epidemic and its impact are routinely observed. In the 1990s, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine released a report on needle exchange programs and HIV transmission. Citing evidence that needle exchange programs lower the rate of HIV transmission, the report called upon the U.S. Surgeon General to make the determination ônecess
...