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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research article

A needle in the haystack – the dire straits of needle exchange in Hungary

Authors: V. Anna Gyarmathy, Róbert Csák, Katalin Bálint, Eszter Bene, András Ernő Varga, Mónika Varga, Nóra Csiszér, István Vingender, József Rácz

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2016

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Abstract

Background

The two largest needle exchange programs (NEPs) in Hungary were forced to close down in the second half of 2014 due to extreme political attacks and related lack of government funding. The closures occurred against a background of rapid expansion in Hungary of injectable new psychoactive substances, which are associated with very frequent injecting episodes and syringe sharing. The aim of our analysis was to predict how the overall Hungarian NEP syringe supply was affected by the closures.

Methods

We analyzed all registry data from all NEPs in Hungary for all years of standardized NEP data collection protocols currently in use (2008–2014) concerning 22 949 client enrollments, 9 211 new clients, 228 167 client contacts, 3 160 560 distributed syringes, and 2 077 676 collected syringes.

Results

We found that while the combined share of the two now closed NEPs decreased over time, even in their partial year 2014 they still distributed and collected about half of all syringes, and attended to over half of all clients and client contacts in Hungary. The number of distributed syringes per PWID (WHO minimum target = 100) was 81 in 2014 in Hungary, but 39 without the two now closed NEPs.

Conclusions

There is a high probability that the combination of decreased NEP coverage and the increased injection risk of new psychoactive substances may lead in Hungary to a public health disaster similar to the HIV outbreaks in Romania and Greece. This can be avoided only by an immediate change in the attitude of the Hungarian government towards harm reduction.
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Metadata
Title
A needle in the haystack – the dire straits of needle exchange in Hungary
Authors
V. Anna Gyarmathy
Róbert Csák
Katalin Bálint
Eszter Bene
András Ernő Varga
Mónika Varga
Nóra Csiszér
István Vingender
József Rácz
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-2842-2

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