Enrolment and retention of people who inject drugs in the Needle & Syringe Exchange Programme in Malaysia

Estimating the Population Size of People Who Inject Drugs in Malaysia for 2014 and 2017 Using the Benchmark-Multiplier Method

“…Diminishing numbers of new client registrations have been observed at NGO-run needle/syringe exchange programme service points from 2013 to 2015 (Chandrasekaran et al, 2017). This does not, however, constitute indirect evidence for a declining active PWID population size, as other factors may influence trends in client registrations.…”

“…Surveys, such as IBBS, will under-represent recent initiates to injecting, and as the surveys were conducted among active injectors only, data on reported duration of injecting are necessarily right- Chandrasekaran et al, 2017). As our baseline value, we used median injecting duration from IBBS-2014, which at 15 years was similar to the duration of 13 years derived from a national IBBS conducted in Vietnam and used in a recent modelling study of HCV treatment impact in the Vietnamese setting (Birger et al, 2017).…”

“…Given the importance of this risk group to the overall burden of HCV (and HIV), a recent, valid estimate of the size of the active PWID population is a crucial input for understanding the full epidemiological landscape and for strategic planning to expand testing and antiviral treatment services to achieve the WHO targets. There is also some indication of a decreasing trend in this population size; for instance new client registrations at NGO-run needle/syringe exchange programme (NSEP) service points declined from 2013 to 2015 (Chandrasekaran et al, 2017).…”

The Implementation of Needle Syringe Exchange Program in Malaysia: A Short Communication

“…As a result, countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, China, and Myanmar started their needle syringe exchange program (NSEP) as a method to reduce HIV cases among people who inject drugs (PWID). To date, NSEP plays a crucial role in containing blood-borne viral infections, mainly HIV, Hepatitis A, and Hepatitis B (Chandrasekaran et al, 2017;Low et al, 2010;Singh et al, 2016;Yusuff, & Mohamed, 2018). This program has been practiced in many countries around the world, with Western European countries and Sweden and Australia being among the leaders in the NSEP (Karlsson et al, 2020).…”

“…Despite the conflict with the legal and socio-cultural framework, the efficacy of NSEP to reduce or prevent the HIV epidemic in Malaysia has been documented in a variety of settings (Chandrasekaran et al, 2017;Low et al, 2010;Singh et al, 2013). The 2010 Malaysia Ministry of Health report indicated the success of NSEP in Malaysia in decreasing the average number of new HIV cases per day, from 17 cases in 2005 to 10 cases in 2009.…”