The United Nations Development Programme’s Country Office announced that needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) have started in prisons in Tajikistan.
The Tajik government’s Department of Correction Affairs initiated a rapid assessment late last year in order to identify a prison for a pilot project, which led a decree in early 2010 commencing the programme, according to the UNDP.
Twenty staff participated in the first two-day training on harm reduction and HIV/AIDS prevention at the selected facility in late February. Education sessions for prisoners are in the process of being scheduled.
UNDP’s Country Office in Tajikistan said in the announcement in its newsletter: ‘Needle and syringe exchange programmes (NSEP) in penitentiary system proved their effectiveness by reducing the risk of contamination with HIV and hepatitis C among imprisoned injecting drug users who share needles and syringes. The experience of countries which introduced NSEP shows that these programmes are safe both for staff in prisoners and promote decrease and harness risky behaviors as well as the rate of blood borne diseases.’
According to IHRA’s Global State of Harm Reduction there is a 14.7 percent adult HIV prevalence among injecting drug userS.
