Delaware
legislative committee votes to fund needle-exchange program

The Delaware legislature's joint finance committee last week voted to spend $315,000 to fund a pilot needle-exchange program for Wilmington, the state's largest city and home to hundreds of HIV-positive injection-drug users, The News Journal of Delaware reports. Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, a Democrat from Wilmington, sponsored the measure. "I feel like we're more than halfway home," she told the paper. "We've never gotten funding included in the budget before, so this is a good sign." The measure now will head to the state house of representatives for approval. Studies have shown that more than 40% of Delaware's HIV infections are linked to injection-drug use.