May 14 - Public Citizen speaks at Texas House committee about needle exchange programs

Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, will be testifying Monday at 8:00 p.m. CST before the Texas House Public Health Committee about SB 308, which would allow for the creation of community needle exchange programs using private or local funding.

Providing access to sterile syringes for high-risk populations is a public health practice that can reduce the number of new HIV infections, though proving this fact through studies can be quite difficult. However, national and international organizations – including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society – have endorsed needle exchange programs as effective, even in the absence of perfect evidence.

READ Dr. Lurie's testimony.

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