PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County reported more utilization of its syringe exchange program in 2018 than it’s ever had, but public health officials didn’t necessarily correlate that with more intravenous drug use.
There were 94,140 syringes exchanged through the county program last year, just less than 3,000 more than 2017, according to the annual report presented Thursday by Lisa McKenzie, a communicable disease specialist for the county.
McKenzie and Dr. Tom Locke, the health officer for Jefferson County, updated the Board of Health with comparable charts and figures.
The number of syringes exchanged in the past two years were about twice the annual number, on average, between 2014-16.
There was a significant difference between 2016, when 47,790 syringes were exchanged, and 2017, when 91,290 syringes were exchanged, according to the report.
Locke suggested that was because many people who anonymously reported they had previously injected only methamphetamine are now using multiple drugs.
“It used to be 80 percent methamphetamine to 20 percent heroin, and now it’s more 50/50,” Locke reported to the Board of Health.
McKenzie pointed to the data that showed 36 percent using only meth and 59 percent using either heroin by itself or both meth and heroin.
“Our primary message is that a majority of our clients are definitely at risk for overdose,” McKenzie said in a Friday interview.
The county exchange program began in 2000 with a focus on preventing the spread of blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, McKenzie said.
It has grown to include the distribution of naloxone, a prescription drug that can counteract a heroin overdose.
The annual report showed between 44 and 59 naloxone kits distributed in the county each year since 2016, when the program first became available through a partnership between the University of Washington and federal grant funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
In 2018, 55 kits and 68 naloxone refills were issued, according to the report, which noted clients frequently tell county officials they gave the first kit away. About half of the refills provided known overdose treatment, the report said.
“It seems like the naloxone program is really helping in overdose prevention, and we’re really pleased we’re able to have that program now,” McKenzie said.
Public health officials also provide sharps containers and can issue materials about safety practices, including treatment programs. The needles are picked up twice per month by a medical disposal company that serves many hospitals, McKenzie said.
Part of the outreach emphasizes the importance of using a syringe only once and to not share needles, McKenzie said.
“Our primary goal is to prevent any type of a disease outbreak,” she said.
The effect has been positive, with 49 percent of users reporting they only used a syringe once in 2011 and the same figures being more than 70 percent in each of the last four years, according to the report.
Locke said Washington is a state with one of the lowest rates in the country in terms of new HIV or hepatitis C cases.
“We were instituting a syringe exchange program in Jefferson County when there were fewer than 100 in the whole country,” he told the Board of Health. “We were out in front of the syringe exchange program.”
The county health department offers the anonymous syringe exchange program from 2 to 4 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays, and from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays at its offices at 615 Sheridan St. in Port Townsend.
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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.