DPA Southern California recently brought together more than 60 pharmacists and healthcare professionals to learn about how harm reduction principles and over-the-counter sales of syringes at pharmacies can reduce the spread of HIV, hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases. With an estimated 84,000 people in Los Angeles County still sharing drug injection equipment, the need for this event was evident and urgent.

The conference, the 2008 Los Angeles Pharmacists’ Summit on Viral Diseases and Their Prevention, was organized by DPA’s Southern California Harm Reduction Coordinator Meghan Ralston, co-sponsored and hosted by the University of Southern California (USC) School of Pharmacy, and supported through a grant from the California Endowment.

Sales of syringes to adults without a prescription have been legal throughout the county since last year via a program called the Disease Prevention Demonstration Project. The Pharmacists’ Summit was designed to educate pharmacists and generate interest in the program, with the goal of encouraging enrollment.

“The County’s best and most recent estimate is that there are around 1,600 people in the county who are HIV positive because they shared syringes and were exposed to the virus. With an additional estimated 1,700 people here currently living with AIDS because of sharing syringes, and over 80,000 still sharing their equipment, it was clear that we needed to do even more to drive home the point that pharmacy sale of syringes needs to happen now, at every pharmacy in the county,” said Ralston.

Physician Laveeza Bhatti, HIV researcher Dr. Stan Louie, pharmacist and Clean Needles Now board president Terry Hair, and Ralston presented information at the half-day event on Sunday, February 24. The USC School of Pharmacy was delighted with attendees’ interest in the subject matter, and pleased that so many people turned out for the event on a rainy Sunday morning. Due to the strong success of the summit, DPA has been invited to work with USC again to create a similar event in the future.

“Syringe exchanges do great work and are essential in disease prevention, but unfortunately their hours and locations are really limited in L.A.,” said Ralston. “The Disease Prevention Demonstration Project will go a long way to helping to get sterile syringes to the people who need them. So far it’s been a huge success, with about 270 pharmacies now authorized to participate--but L.A. is huge and we still have a long way to go. The summit definitely brought us one step closer to our goal.”