San Francisco Leaders Debate Safe Injection Center
About 150 members of the AIDS community gathered last week in San Francisco to discuss whether or not the city should open a safe injection center for intravenous drug users (SFgate.com, 10/19).
Advocates and public-health workers say a controlled facility for drug addicts, staffed by medical workers, could help stop the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, prevent deaths from overdoses and help keep dirty needles from littering San Francisco streets. Members of the Alliance for Saving Lives are gathering signatures for a letter that they plan to send to city leaders in support of the center.
"We call on San Francisco to create a legal Safer Injection Facility staffed with trained medical professionals... Please help us make this critical program a reality,” reads the letter.
If opened, the center in San Francisco would be the second of its kind in North America. In Vancouver, the Insite safe injection center, which opened four years ago, serves 800 intravenous drug users every day. Though there was initial skepticism surrounding the site, it now has the support of the mayor, police chief and local residents.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
Woman of the Month is supported by exclusive advertising from Gilead.
Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
