Ten Thousand Needles Off Delaware's Streets Through Exchange

Delaware's needle exchange program passed another huge milestone recently when we exchanged our 10,000th syringe. What an accomplishment for a program now entering its twentieth month of operation. Six months ago, our total was at 3,500.

Every syringe has been exchanged for a clean one, meaning ten thousand dirty ones are no longer on the streets of Wilmington. Because it's a one-for-one exchange, there is incentive for participants to bring every clean one back after it’s been used. So although we’ve given out ten thousand syringes, they are being returned. The effect is not needle litter, but the opposite.

Here’s some more impressive numbers:

• We’ve enrolled a total of 353 participants.
• A total of 1697 exchanges have taken place.
• 132 participants were referred by another needle exchange participant.
• 17 participants have entered drug treatment.
• Since November 2007, 621 rapid HIV tests have been done on our van. 7 positives have been identified.