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AIMS: To appraise the evidence critically for effectiveness of pharmacy-based needle/syringe exchange programmes (pharmacy-based NSPs) on risk behaviours (RBs), HIV/HCV prevalence and economic outcomes among people who inject drugs (PWID). DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING: Primary care setting. PARTICIPANTS: Of 1568 studies screened, 14 studies with 7035 PWID were included. MEASURES: tests. FINDINGS: = 41. 4%). For safe syringe disposal and HIV/HCV prevalence, the evidence for pharmacy-based NSPs compared with other NSP or no NSP was unclear, as few of the studies reported this and most of them had a serious risk of bias. Compared with the total life-time cost of US55 640 for treating a person with HIV infection, the HIV prevalence among PWID has to be at least 0. 8% (for pharmacy-based NSPs) or 2. 1% (for other NSPs) to result in cost-savings. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacy-based needle/syringe exchange programmes appear to be effective for reducing risk behaviours among people who inject drugs, although their effect on HIV/HCV prevalence and economic outcomes is unclear.
Sawangjit et al. (Sat,) studied this question.