Higher syringe coverage is associated with lower odds of HIV risk and does not increase unsafe syringe disposal among syringe exchange program clients

Abstract Objective To determine if adequate syringe coverage – “one shot for one syringe” – among syringe exchange program (SEP) clients is associated with injection-related HIV risk behaviors and syringe disposal. Design HIV risk assessments with 1577 injection drug users (IDUs) recruited from 24 SEPs in California between 2001 and 2003. Individual syringe coverage was calculated as a proportion of syringes retained from SEP visits to total number of injections in the last 30 days. Results Participants were divided into four groups based on syringe coverage: Conclusions Individual syringe coverage is strongly associated with safer injection behaviors without impacting syringe disposal among SEP clients. Syringe coverage is a useful measure for determining if IDUs are obtaining sufficient syringes to lower HIV risk.