Harm Reduction on outreach

Harm reduction is not just the nine interventions that form the comprehensive package of health services recommended by the WHO for HIV prevention, treatment and care for people who inject drugs. Harm reduction is a set of principles that can be applied to any potentially harmful activity to reduce risk and related harms. In these times of COVID-19, people delivering essential and life-saving services must take all the precautions they can to reduce their own risk of contracting COVID-19. ​

Harm reduction is not just the nine interventions that form the comprehensive package of health services recommended by the WHO for HIV prevention, treatment and care for people who inject drugs. Harm reduction is a set of principles that can be applied to any potentially harmful activity to reduce risk and related harms. In these times of COVID-19, people delivering essential and life-saving services must take all the precautions they can to reduce their own risk of contracting COVID-19. 
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SANPUD has been working with our expert consultant and trainer Jos Luteijn to help the outreach workers at the TBHIV Care Step Up Project keep reduce their exposure to COVID-19 during fieldwork. Here are two brief videos describing how one of the teams reduces risk while collecting used syringes and distributing sterile injecting equipment and other hygiene and health items to people who inject drugs in Cape Town, South Africa.
We will be offering online training and further videos as the pandemic continues.