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In its first year, Chattanooga’s syringe exchange program has become about ‘much more’ than preventing infectious disease

Cempa DEO Shannon Stevenson readies the crowd for the march. Cempa Community Care's 24th Annual Strides of March was held at Renaissance Park on March 23, 2019. A memorial walk was held to remember those lost to HIV/AIDS.
Cempa DEO Shannon Stevenson readies the crowd for the march. Cempa Community Care's 24th Annual Strides of March was held at Renaissance Park on March 23, 2019. A memorial walk was held to remember those lost to HIV/AIDS. Cempa DEO Shannon Stevenson readies the crowd for the march. Cempa Community Care's 24th Annual Strides of March was held at Renaissance Park on March 23, 2019. A memorial walk was held to remember those lost to HIV/AIDS.

By Elizabeth Fite 3 min read

A year after its inception, the region’s only syringe exchange program revealed promising data in its effort to curb the spread of blood-borne infectious diseases.

Injection drug use has soared as a result of the opioid epidemic, and with that so has the risk of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C that can be spread when infected needles are shared. STEP TN – which stands for Syringe Trade and Education Program of Tennessee – is operated locally by Cempa Community Care and is a free, anonymous program allowing participants to exchange used needles for sterile ones.

Since March 2018, 909 people have participated in the program, 122,633 used syringes were safely discarded and 161,017 clean syringes were dispensed.

Ashley Ewald, manager of STEP TN, said the program’s initial goals were education and harm reduction, but it’s become “much more than just preventing infectious disease.”

When clients exchange syringes, they’re also given free testing for HIV and hepatitis C, information about substance use treatment and naloxone – a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid drug overdose.