Thread by @BuzzFeedNews

In July, Atlantic City lawmakers voted 7–-2 to close the city’s needle exchange against the advice of their own health director. Opponents say closing the exchange could lead to a public health disaster. buzzfeednews.com/article/danver…

The South Jersey AIDS Alliance/Oasis Drop In Center, is the city’s only — and New Jersey’s largest and oldest — needle exchange program. It serves 1,200 people a year and also provides the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, wound care, drug dependence treatment and HIV screening.

The city’s public health director, who is a veteran of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, opposed Oasis’s closure, citing the risks of an HIV or hepatitis outbreak.

Evidence shows that needle exchanges reduce HIV and hepatitis, typically cutting local disease rates in half. The CDC estimates needle exchange clients are five times more likely to enter drug treatment and three times more likely to stop using drugs. buzzfeednews.com/article/danver…

This is only the latest in a flurry of attacks on needle exchanges nationwide despite a rise in HIV outbreaks among people who use injection drugs that have been linked to shared needles and an increase in overdoses nationwide.

If Oasis closes, the nearest needle exchange would be in Camden, about an hour and a half away by car.

“If they close us down, there will be an outbreak here — that’s my biggest fear,” South Jersey AIDS Alliance CEO Carol Harney said. buzzfeednews.com/article/danver…