Needle exchange programs in prisons in Spain.

On 11 July 2000, at the XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, yet another country--Spain--presented evidence that needle exchange programs in prisons work. We reproduce here the text of the presentation entitled "Needle Exchange Program at the Bilbao Prison, Spain: Two Years of Experience (1997-1999)."

The validation of statements by IDUs based on the analysis of blood traces on their used syringes.

The objective of this study was to study the correlation between statements made by injecting drug users (IDUs) and the analytical observation of their used syringes, with regard to needle and syringe non-sharing and HIV serology. A survey was carried out on 137 IDUs participating in different needle exchange programmes (NEPs) throughout the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC). The used syringe they handed over in exchange for a new one was kept to study the 'DNA fingerprint' and the presence of HIV. The DNA fingerprint carried on 123 syringes belonging to different injectors who stated that they had not shared them with other IDUs, confirmed that this was so in 98% of the cases. HIV analysis was applied to the 137 syringes and 63 (46%) had HIV antibodies. The consistency was 89% for the cases who voluntarily declared themselves to be HIV-positive and 76% for the cases who declared themselves to be HIV-negative. For the unknown cases, six (31.6%) syringes were HIV-positive. This study supports the validity and reliability of the surveys, based on statements made by the IDUs themselves, on their behaviour. The prevalence of HIV infection in the IDU population must be based on detection of antibodies against HIV.