Another guest article from Jamie Bridge this week. This time he's writing about some of the work of researcher Dr. William Zule, looking into how the type of syringe someone uses may have an inpact on their risk of getting the HIV virus. I have had this article a few weeks but it was embargoed until the AIDS2010 conference started as its finding are being presented there.

I've been asking Jamie Bridge to write another article for this site since he started his new job. Well he's now written it and his timing is impeccable. Next week is the AIDS2010 conference in Vienna and the Global Fund is a key player in the fight to tackle the spread of AIDS.

In this article Jamie gives us a quick introduction to their work.

I've got another guest article today for you. This one is another from the wonderful Dr.Stephen Parkin. You might remember he wrote an article for the blog previously on drug related litter. 

This time he is writing about the blue lights that you find in some public toilets that he has been researching recently (the lights, not the toilets).

Last week at the NNEF meeting I got talking to Dr Stephen Parkin about drug related litter, he'd given a great talk challenging the perception that syringes are just thrown in bushes with no thought about public safety.

Stephen was good enough to agree to write an article for Injecting Advice about this subject.

Today I've got an article from a guest blogger Stephen Bamber. Stephen normally writes the great Recovery focused blog The Art of Life Itself, but I recently asked him if he would like to write a piece for Injecting Advice on how he thinks needle programmes fit into the idea and ethos of Recovery. I hope you like what he's had to say.

Sex work can be a challenging line of business! First off, if you’re fortunate enough to make it through the barrage of opinion that tells you you’re in need of rescuing or rehabilitating, well done! Secondly, getting good risk reduction information in the face of punitive, contradictory laws can be really tough, however the purpose of this article is to provide a basic outline of helpful information geared at improving the general safety and well-being of (mostly) street based sex workers. Some of the information will be applicable to anyone working in the industry who is selling sex for money.

In May 2007, the NTA paid for a team of ten UK service users to attend the annual IHRA conference in Warsaw, Poland. The team's task was to gather information on new evidence-based harm reduction initiatives from around the world in order to guide and improve services in the UK. The team have released their report in October 2007.

The report – entitled "Nothing about us, without us: The English user representatives' report from the 2007 International Harm Reduction Association conference" – was formally launched at Exchange Supplies' 'National Conference on Injecting Drug Use' (NCIDU) in Glasgow. It focuses on five key messages that the team took home from the conference.