A decade after Congress first allowed federal funding to support clean needle programs, the Trump administration is backing off that policy, potentially risking progress made against hepatitis C, a deadly but curable virus mostly spread by people who inject drugs.
The administration now says funding can no longer support the programs such as paying the people who distribute syringes, framing it as “enabling” drug use.
The change is part of the administration’s broader rejection of a public health approach aimed at reducing the harms of drug use through measures like syringe services, test strips, as well as efforts to connect people with food, housing and medical care.
What could follow is a spike in preventable infectious diseases like hepatitis C, which countries like England are on the way to eliminating as a public health threat by 2030 — in part by expanding access to testing and clean needles for people who inject drugs, public health advocates say.
“Limiting access to test strips, as well as clean syringes, puts American lives at risk,” a group of senators led by Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., said a letter to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in response to the change.
