Gender, HIV and IDU

The Eurasian Harm Reduction Network and Harm Reduction Knowledge Hub have launched a project to promote gender equality in HIV programming for IDU. Gender inequality is a topic of growing importance in the Harm Reduction community as implementers become more aware of the dangers of programming that is not sensitive to the gender dynamics of IDU driven HIV epidemics. Read more about the project and post your thoughts and comments at:

http://www.harm-reduction.org/news/1646-ehrn-launches-new-gender-project.html

For PSI platforms interested in ensuring their programs are providing the necessary services for female IDU, visit the IDU Kix page where resource on working with female IDU are provided.

Kenya and IDU

Exciting news out of Kenya. In its third National AIDS Strategic Plan, the Kenyan government has pledged to "ease restrictions on programmes that work with drug users and other at-risk groups whose behaviour has been criminalized".

The plan states, “Sex work, homosexuality and drug use are illegal in Kenya, and attempts to de-criminalise them have faced significant religious and cultural resistance among the population. However, based on new evidence, KNASP III will work with all most at risk groups and seek innovative ways to reduce HIV transmission. Programmes have been working with all these groups for many years, but under constraints, which KNASP III aims to alleviate systematically.”

This is a major step forward for harm reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya has one of the largest IDU populations in the region and barriers to working with the population have made programming difficult.

PSI continues to seek expansion of its IDU work into Africa. African platforms interested in IDU programming can access the "IDU in Africa" page on Kix and contact the IDU technical team to learn more on how to begin working with this key population.

Take home Naloxone

See below for a link to a new website on the topic of take-home Naloxone, a website run by independent academics and healthcare professionals aimed at raising the awareness and profile of the use of take-home naloxone as a mechanism for reducing drug-related death, and to provide a forum for discussing innovation, training and practice developments

http://www.take-homenaloxone.com/

NYC Brochure on Safe Injecting

New York City Department of Health recently published "Take Care and Take Charge", a brochure on safe injecting. See the brochure at the following link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paolomastrangelo/4243932008/in/set-72157623134888628/

This harm reduction approach seeks to ensure that people who are not yet ready to cease drug use, inject as safely as possible. Teaching safer injecting practices in a comprehensible and easy manner is a critical step in reducing drug related harms like HIV and overdose death.