During the month of May, the Lake Cumberland District Health Department’s Harm Reduction Syringe Exchange Program saw 93 total visits with 63 repeat visitors and six new visitors in Russell County. A total of 3,350 syringes were dispensed and 3,295 collected for a 98.4 percent collection ratio for the month.
Among returning clients, there was a 98.3 percent collection ratio with 3,300 syringes dispensed and 3,245 collected.
The health department says the goal of the Syringe Exchange Program isn’t to supply needles to drug addicts but the supplying of the needles is a strategy used to prevent the spread of Hepatitis C and HIV, to decrease the cost to society for treating Hepatitis C and HIV, to get used needles out of the ditches, and parks, and off the roadsides and disposed of properly, and to recommend referrals for treatment.