Despite three high-profile incidents in a week, Island Health says downtown Victoria's dirty needle problem could actually be improving.
The surprising statement came Wednesday after the health authority held an emergency meeting with police and stakeholders, like Our Place and needle distribution centres, to discuss the recent rash of needle incidents in the city.
Island Health says workers on the front lines are finding the same amount or even fewer discarded needles on Victoria streets, and that the recent incidents may be less of a pattern and more of a coincidence.
"The sense we've gotten is that in terms of needles that were being found on the streets, in terms of improperly discarded, are not worse and may even be better than previously, in part as a result of the overdose prevention sites," said Dr. Richard Stanwick, Island Health Chief Medical Health Officer. "The fact that we have a cluster does happen from time to time, it happens with disease clusters. There are times where we have much fewer individual needle sticks and certainly what we want to emphasize is that these will occur from time to time."
The group discussed different options for preventing further problems caused by discarded needles such as expanding sweeps and creating a single access point to discard them.
Front line workers had already stepped up sweeps after a three-year-old child was pricked in a downtown McDonald's last week. Police announced Wednesday they had concluded their investigation into that incident, determining the needle wasn't left with malicious intent and was previously used for a medical purpose.
Police confirmed they had spoken with the person who improperly discarded it and they were cooperating with the investigation.
Two other incidents last week saw a woman pricked by an uncapped syringe hidden in a paper bag, while another woman was pricked while tending to a planter outside a Johnson Street business. Police believe the latter needle may have been maliciously placed.
At the emergency meeting held Wednesday, Stanwick said that the needle found sticking straight out of the planter could have been done maliciously to discredit clean-up efforts or further stigmatize drug users.
"Most of these acts aren't being committed by people who are suffering from dependency," Stanwick said.
He also reminded the public that anyone pricked by a discarded needle is at a very low risk of contracting a disease.
"One of the things I really have to emphasize is how low-risk this really is to the general public, in part because of our aggressive needle distribution program," he said. "Even if the needles are out there, the odds are that they will not be containing harmful pathogens."
An investigation into the needle found in the planter on Johnson Street is still underway, according to police.
