Abstract—The increasing cases of HIV/AIDs among the
women and infants transmitted from the drug abuser through
sharing of needles and unsafe sex had forced the Ministry of
Health to initiate harm reduction programmes. A group of
researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
administered two harm reduction programmes: needle &
syringe exchange programme (NSEP) and the methadone
maintenance programme (MMT). The two programmes were
conducted for patients at a local NGO and a public hospital in
Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The efforts were not received
favourably by many people because it involves the use of public
funds. As accounting professionals, the first three authors were
invited by USM researchers to review of the costs effectiveness
of the programmes. Basically, the drug users who participated
in these programmes are mostly youths and young adults who
are at their prime age. In this paper the authors discuss the cost
effectiveness of the NSEP and MMT intervention programmes.
The paper also looks into the quality of life of the
clients/patients.
Index Terms—Effectiveness of harm reduction, methadone
maintenance therapy (MMT), needle and syringe exchange
programme (NSEP), Quality of life.
Sharifah Fadzlon Abdul Hamid, Normah Omar, Suzana Sulaiman, and
Wee Shu Hui are with the Accounting Research Institute and Faculty of
Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia (e-mail:
shari355@salam.uitm.edu.my, normah645@salam.uitm.edu.my)
Rusli Ismail is with the University Malaya, Malaysia.
[PDF]
Cite: Sharifah Fadzlon Abdul Hamid, Normah Omar, Suzana Sulaiman, Wee Shu Hui, and Rusli Ismail, "Cost Effectiveness of Harm Reduction: Comparison
Needle and Syringe Exchange Programme," Journal of Economics, Business and Management vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 207-211, 2015.