Needle exchange opens in Alberton

The first needle exchange office in western P.E.I. opened Wednesday in Alberton.

The office is located at St. Martha's house, which is attached to the Western Hospital. It will be open every Wednesday afternoon.

There are two other needle exchange offices in the province — one in Charlottetown at the Professional Boardwalk Centre on Water Street, and the other in Summerside at the Harbourside Medical Centre.

Dr. Lamont Sweet, P.E.I.'s deputy chief health officer, said there is still a need for more needle exchange offices.

"We're getting hepatitis C cases, 375 approximately in the last 10 years, of new cases," he said. "Now, 90 to 95 per cent of all new cases are due to sharing needles."

Sweet said an announcement is expected in the next few weeks about a needle exchange office for Kings County.

"We have this problem across the province," said Sweet. "There was still a need to expand it to the rest of the province."

In March 2009, the P.E.I. government took over the provincial needle exchange program from AIDS PEI.

In addition to providing clean supplies, the program offers other services such as counselling, health teaching, sexual health advice, wound care and referral to a variety of services.