Bangor health center halts clean syringe and STD testing services

A Bangor nonprofit temporarily stopped distributing clean syringes and closed its resource center for people grappling with homelessness, mental health disorders and active substance use.
The Bangor Health Equity Alliance halted its syringe distribution program due to “unexpected circumstances,” it announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
The program offers people who inject drugs clean syringes to prevent sharing used needles, which can spread infections, blood borne diseases and cause painful wounds.
On Wednesday, the nonprofit closed its Health Equity Alliance Resource and Testing Center “for a few days for restructuring,” according to a Facebook post.
The center on Hancock Street, which opened in March, provides people who are homeless or have substance use disorders a space to socialize and easily access the organization’s other resources, such as HIV and hepatitis C testing.
The announcements come amid an ongoing rise in new HIV cases in Penobscot County, which local syringe providers play a key role in mitigating. The HEART Center’s sudden closure also comes as temperatures plummeted, leaving those who are unhoused to seek new places to stay warm.
People in need of sterile syringes can receive them from Bangor-based Needle Point Sanctuary and Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, Penobscot County’s two other syringe service programs.
The closures do not affect the organization’s HIV medical case management and the nonprofit continues to provide coordination of care and transportation for those in need, according to Josh D’Alessio, executive director of the Bangor Health Equity Alliance.
D’Alessio declined to comment on how long the closures could last and what caused them.