to Needle Exchange Programs in Rural Communities on Transmission of Blood-Borne Pathogens
Background: Abuse of injectable drugs is highly prevalent in the US and has been further exacerbated by the opioid epidemic. Harm reduction strategies, such as needle exchange programs, focus on making injectable drug use as safe as possible rather than on eradicating it (Hawk et al., 2017). Needle exchange programs aim to reduce the spread of infectious disease among drug users by providing clean syringes and have proven to be effective, reducing the predominance of HIV in New York City, for example, from 50% to 17% (“Access To Clean Syringes,” 2016). However, discrepancies in ease of access, such as availability of public transportation, geography, and socioeconomic factors could affect the utilization of needle exchange programs in rural vs urban areas. Objectives: The objective of the research is to determine if the ease of access to needle exchange programs affects the rates of transmission of blood-borne pathogens among persons who use injectable drugs in rural communities.