Effectiveness of harm reduction programmes for injecting drug users in Dhaka city.docVIP

Harm Reduction Journal BioMedCentral Review Open Access Effectiveness of harm reduction programmes for injecting drug users in Dhaka city Tasnim Azim*1, Najmul Hussein2 and Robert Kelly3 Address: 1ICDDR, B: Centre for Health and Population Research, Bangladesh, Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh, 2CARE, Bangladesh, Dhaka Field Office, 49/1, Babar Rd, Mohammedpur, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh and 3Family Health International, Bangladesh Country Office, House #5, Rd. #5, Gulshan-2, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh Email: Tasnim Azim* - tasnim@; Najmul Hussein - najmulhussein@; Robert Kelly - rkelly@ * Corresponding author Published: 25 October 2005 Received: 27 November 2004 Accepted: 25 October 2005 Harm Reduction Journal 2005, 2:22 doi:10.1186/1477-7517-2-22 This article is available from: /content/2/1/22 ? 2005 Azim et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract This paper provides a brief overview of the harm reduction programme for injecting drug users (IDU) of CARE, Bangladesh in Dhaka city and uses data from surveillance and a focussed research study on a cohort of IDU, to evaluate the programme. The harm reduction programme in Dhaka is run by CARE, Bangladesh and includes needle/syringe exchange, awareness raising on HIV/STI, abscess management, condom distribution and advocacy with different groups of people. The needle/syringe exchange programme (NEP) has been in place since 1998, the 2nd Generation Surveillance in Bangladesh is being conducted since 1998, and an in-depth cohort study, started in 2002, is being conducted in two areas of Dhaka city with approximately 500 IDU under CAREs NEP who are being followed bi-annually to assess risk behaviour, incidence of HIV, hepatit