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Gyarmathy VA, Neaigus A, Li N, Ujhelyi E, Caplinskiene I, Caplinskas S, Latkin CA. Liquid Drugs and High Dead Space Syringes May Keep HIV and HCV Prevalence High – A Comparison of Hungary and Lithuania. Eur Addict Res 2010; 16:220-8. [PMID: 20798543 PMCID: PMC2969108 DOI: 10.1159/000320287] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Despitevery similar political, drug policy and HIV prevention backgrounds, HIV and HCV prevalence is considerably different in Hungary (low HIV and moderate HCV prevalence) and Lithuania (high HCV and moderate HIV prevalence). Wecompared the drug use profile of Hungarian (n = 215) and Lithuanian (n = 300) injecting drug users (IDUs). Overall, compared with IDUs in Hungary, IDUs in Lithuania often injected opiates purchased in liquid form ('shirka'), used and shared 2-piece syringes (vs. 1-piece syringes) disproportionately more often, were less likely to acquire their syringes from legal sources and had significantly more experience with injected and less experience with non-injected drugs. It may not be liquid drugs per se that contribute to a higher prevalence of HCV and/or HIV, but it is probably factors associated with the injecting of liquid drugs, such as the wide-spread use and sharing of potentially contaminated 2-piece syringes acquired often from non-legal sources, and syringe-mediated drug sharing with 2-piece syringes. Scaling up substitution therapy, especially heroin replacement, combined with reducing the supply of liquid drugs may decrease the prevalence of high-risk injecting behaviours related to the injecting of liquid drugs and drug injecting-related infections among IDUs in Lithuania.
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Affiliation(s)
- V. Anna Gyarmathy
- European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, Portugal,Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md., USA,*V. Anna Gyarmathy, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Cais do Sodré, PT–1249-289 Lisbon (Portugal), Tel. +351 21 121 0200, Fax +351 21 358 4441, E-Mail
| | - Alan Neaigus
- Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, N.Y., USA
| | - Nan Li
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md., USA
| | | | - Irma Caplinskiene
- Centre for Communicable Diseases and AIDS, Social Policy Faculty, Vilnius, Lithuania,M. Romerius University, Social Policy Faculty, Vilnius, Lithuania
| | - Saulius Caplinskas
- Centre for Communicable Diseases and AIDS, Social Policy Faculty, Vilnius, Lithuania,M. Romerius University, Social Policy Faculty, Vilnius, Lithuania
| | - Carl A. Latkin
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md., USA
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