Doctors honoured
Two Sydney doctors who pioneered world-leading harm reduction strategies for injecting drug users have been made Members of the Order of Australia (AM).
Ingrid van Beek was the founding director of Australia’s only Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in Kings Cross, and in the 1980s Alex Wodak from St Vincent’s Hospital risked his career by illegally launching a needle exchange program, a measure since accepted internationally as an effective way to reduce the spread of HIV. Dr Wodak is also a prominent campaigner for drug law reform.
by Michael Gormly
