Injecting centre saves four lives
Source: AAP|Published: Thursday June 21, 1:05 PM
Staff at Australia's first legal heroin injecting room said today four lives had been saved in its first month of operation.
Medical director Ingrid van Beek said she believed more than half of the local drug using population had visited the centre, in Sydney's Kings Cross, in the first four weeks of operation.
"We believe potentially we had saved four lives," she said today.
Because the users had been treated promptly they had required oxygen only for their resuscitation, she said.
Normally the drug Narcan is routinely used to reverse the effects of a heroin overdose.
Dr van Beek said if those four had injected alone on the street and had not been treated quickly they would have died.
She said 303 people had registered to use the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) while staff had overseen 500 injecting episodes.
The service had referred nearly 50 people to health and counselling services, she said.
From The Age, Breaking News:
http://www.theage.com.au/breaking/2001/06/21/FFXI101F7OC.html
