25th International Harm Reduction Conference 2017

aidsmap news from HR17

• HIV treatment targets for people who inject drugs will be missed without focus on rights, privacy and prisons

  People who inject drugs
  Susie McLean | 31 May 2017

  Reaching ambitious HIV treatment targets for people who use drugs requires efforts to protect privacy, to promote access to opioid substitution treatment and to keep people out of prison, the ...

• Heroin combined with fentanyl is driving overdose crisis in US

  Harm reduction
  Liz Highleyman | 24 May 2017

  New sources of heroin and increasing adulteration with fentanyl and other stronger analogues are contributing to a growing epidemic of opioid overdose deaths in several regions of the US, researchers reported at the ...

• Injecting drug use increases worldwide, but no increases in needle and syringe programmes

  Harm reduction
  Susie McLean | 24 May 2017

  Despite reports of expanding rates of injecting drug use in a new list of countries around the world, no new countries have established needle and syringe programmes in the last three years. This is ...

• Indonesian buyers club helps people obtain generic hepatitis C treatment

  Hepatitis C treatment
  Liz Highleyman | 24 May 2017

  A community-led buyers club in Indonesia has helped more than 100 people get generic direct-acting antiviral (DAA) drugs to treat hepatitis C and is seeing a high cure rate, according to a ...

• Pet care can connect people to health and harm reduction services

  Retention and linkage to care
  Liz Highleyman | 24 May 2017

  Providing free veterinary care can be a good way to bring homeless and marginally housed people into contact with health care, harm reduction and other services, according to a presentation at the ...

• Use of psychedelic drugs may reduce the risk of suicide in female sex workers

  Sex workers
  Liz Highleyman | 24 May 2017

  Women sex workers who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD were less likely to think about or attempt suicide, while some other drugs increased the risk, according to study results presented at ...

• Canadian Minister of Health opens International Harm Reduction Conference amid controversy over overdose deaths

  Harm reduction
  Susie McLean | 22 May 2017

  The 25th International Harm Reduction Conference (HR17) in Montréal, Canada, kicked off with a dramatic opening session last week, featuring Jane Philpott, Canadian Minister of Health, along with a group ...

• People who use drugs may use cannabis and drug cocktails as a form of harm reduction

  Harm reduction
  Liz Highleyman | 22 May 2017

  People who use drugs have come up with innovative strategies that help them reduce harm, including using marijuana to decrease crack use and mixing heroin with methamphetamine to moderate the effects of ...

• Hepatitis C virus reinfection is uncommon after being cured with DAAs

  Hepatitis C treatment
  Liz Highleyman | 19 May 2017

  Most people on opiate substitution therapy were successfully treated for hepatitis C with an interferon-free regimen of grazoprevir/elbasvir (Zepatier), and only a small number became reinfected during three years of follow-up, researchers reported ...

• Overamping is a common problem among people who use stimulants

  Harm reduction
  Liz Highleyman | 19 May 2017

  Overdosing on stimulants such as methamphetamine – known as 'overamping' – is an under-recognised problem in a harm reduction community that more often focuses on opioid overdose, according to a presentation yesterday ...

• Combining drug addiction treatment and perinatal HIV prevention leads to good outcomes in Kenya

  Harm reduction
  Liz Highleyman | 18 May 2017

  An integrated programme offering medication-assisted drug addiction treatment and services aimed at preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission led to improved outcomes for opioid-dependent HIV-positive mothers and their babies, according to a presentation at the ...

• Hydromorphone works as well as heroin-assisted drug addiction treatment

  Harm reduction
  Liz Highleyman | 16 May 2017

  Hydromorphone was as effective as pharmaceutical heroin for opioid addiction treatment, but it was associated with fewer serious side-effects, according to results from the SALOME trial presented yesterday at the 25th International ...

• Drug checking reveals high levels of fentanyl contamination in Vancouver street drugs

  Harm reduction
  Liz Highleyman | 16 May 2017

  A pilot project to check the purity of drugs at Vancouver's Insite safe injection facility found that around 80% of tested samples contained fentanyl, and people who learned their drugs were contaminated were ...

• AA amyloidosis is an unrecognised problem among people who inject drugs

  Harm reduction
  Liz Highleyman | 16 May 2017

  AA amyloidosis, a condition resulting from skin and soft tissue infections that can lead to kidney failure, may be more common than previously recognised among people who inject drugs, according to a presentation ...