Last week a delegation from Latvia visited Madrid and Barcelona as part of the European project “Joint Action on HIV and Co-Infection Prevention and Harm Reduction” (HA-REACT). Latvian professionals from a variety of fields related to social health visited different organizations and resources related to harm reduction (activities intended to prevent the harmful effects of drug use). They visited and shared experiences with different organizations and teams from shelters, day and night care centers, drug dependency rehabilitation centers, supervised drug consumption centers, and mobile methadone dispensation units, among others.
The objective of this activity was to show the different harm reduction programs carried out in Spain to combat the HIV epidemic associated with drug consumption and to consider the possibility of initiating similar programs in Latvia.
The activity was organized by a collaboration of Group 21 of Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish partner in the “HA-REACT” project, and the Instituto de Adicciones – Salud Madrid y la Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona.