Needles ready, harm-reduction rollout awaits approval

Fiji has sufficient supplies of sterile needles and syringes for a national harm-reduction programme, but their distribution is awaiting Government approval and amendments to legislation.

Minister for Health and Medical Services Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu said the Cabinet sub-committee was working to have the programme approved by the next Parliament sitting on September 28.

“We plan to have it endorsed in Cabinet and it will need some amendments to the legislation. Probably by the next sitting of Parliament, it should be approved,” he said.

National HIV Outbreak and Cluster Response Taskforce chair, Dr Jason Mitchell, said swift Government approval would allow the programme to be fully rolled out.

“The Fiji Government has procured all the needles and syringes and they're currently sitting in our warehouse in Suva. We have sufficient supplies and we have engaged the services of UNDP who are able to procure additional resources if required, if we ever do run short.”

Dr Mitchell emphasised that the programme was aimed at encouraging “safer drug use”.

“From the public health side, our job is to make sure that people who are engaged in drug use are doing so safely and that they have access to sterile needles and syringes to reduce HIV infection and Hepatitis C that is currently rising as a result of risky behaviour associated with drug use.”

He said the Government had made its position clear on the distinction between drug use and supporting safer drug use.

“The industry is about supporting safe drug use. It is in no way saying that drug use is appropriate.”

Dr Mitchell said more than 90 countries around the world had adopted needle and syringe programmes, making sterile needles and syringes available to people who use drugs.