Humanising and optimising HIV health care for refugees and asylum seekers.

Displaced populations living with HIV, including refugees and asylum seekers, face substantial challenges across various regions globally. The intersection of forced migration and HIV presents both shared challenges and region-specific differences. Key issues include little access to health care, pervasive stigma, discrimination, and disruptions in the continuity of HIV care.

The Use of Natural Language Processing Methods in Reddit to Investigate Opioid Use: Scoping Review.

Background: The growing availability of big data spontaneously generated by social media platforms allows us to leverage natural language processing (NLP) methods as valuable tools to understand the opioid crisis.

Objective: We aimed to understand how NLP has been applied to Reddit (Reddit Inc) data to study opioid use.

Methods: We systematically searched for peer-reviewed studies and conference abstracts in PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, ACL Anthology, IEEE Xplore, and Association for Computing Machinery data repositories up to July 19, 2022.

Enhanced Cohort Methods for HIV Research and Epidemiology (ENCORE): Protocol for a Nationwide Hybrid Cohort for Transgender Women in the United States.

Background: In the United States, transgender women are disproportionately impacted by HIV and prioritized in the national strategy to end the epidemic. Individual, interpersonal, and structural vulnerabilities underlie HIV acquisition among transgender women and fuel syndemic conditions, yet no nationwide cohort monitors their HIV and other health outcomes.

Objective: Our objective is to develop a nationwide cohort to estimate HIV incidence, identify risk factors, and investigate syndemic conditions co-occurring with HIV vulnerability or acquisition among US transgender women.

HIV-1 transmission dynamics among people who inject drugs on the US/Mexico border during the COVID-19 pandemic: a prosepective cohort study.

Background: We examined HIV prevalence and transmission dynamics among people who inject drugs in the U.S./Mexico border region during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Changes in injecting versus smoking heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine among people who inject drugs in San Diego, California, 2020-2023.

Background: Amidst an increasingly toxic drug supply in North America, people who inject drugs may be transitioning to smoking them. We aimed to assess changes in injecting and smoking opioids and methamphetamine among a cohort of people who inject drugs from San Diego, California.

Methods: Over five six-month periods spanning October 2020-April 2023, we assessed prevalence of injecting and smoking opioids or methamphetamine and whether participants used these drugs more frequently by smoking than injecting.

Changes in injecting versus smoking heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine among people who inject drugs in San Diego, California, 2020 to 2023.

Background: Amidst a rapidly evolving drug supply in North America, people who inject drugs may be transitioning to smoking them. We aimed to assess changes in injecting and smoking heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine among a cohort of people who injected drugs at baseline from San Diego, California.

Methods: Over five six-month periods spanning October 2020-April 2023, we assessed prevalence of injecting and smoking opioids or methamphetamine and whether participants used these drugs more frequently by smoking than injecting.

Cost-effectiveness of a police education program on HIV and overdose among people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico.

Background: Incarceration is associated with drug-related harms among people who inject drugs (PWID). We trained >1800 police officers in Tijuana, Mexico on occupational safety and HIV/HCV, harm reduction, and decriminalization reforms (Proyecto Escudo). We evaluated its effect on incarceration, population impact and cost-effectiveness on HIV and fatal overdose among PWID.

Recent HIV infection and annualized HIV incidence rates among sexual and gender minorities in Brazil and Peru (ImPrEP seroincidence study): a cross-sectional, multicenter study.

Background: HIV incidence estimation is critical for monitoring the HIV epidemic dynamics and the effectiveness of public health prevention interventions. We aimed to identify sexual and gender minorities (SGM) with recent HIV infections, factors associated with recent HIV infection, and to estimate annualised HIV incidence rates.

Methods: Cross-sectional multicentre study in HIV testing services in Brazil and Peru (15 cities).

Fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine-based counterfeit pills sold at tourist-oriented pharmacies in Mexico: An ethnographic and drug checking study.

Background: Fentanyl- and methamphetamine-based counterfeit prescription drugs have driven escalating overdose death rates in the US, however their presence in Mexico has not been assessed. Our ethnographic team has conducted longitudinal research focused on illicit drug markets in Northern Mexico since 2018. In 2021-2022, study participants described the arrival of new, unusually potent tablets sold as ostensibly controlled substances, without a prescription, directly from pharmacies that cater to US tourists.

Drug checking in the fentanyl era: Utilization and interest among people who inject drugs in San Diego, California.

Background: In North America, overdose rates have steeply risen over the past five years, largely due to the ubiquity of illicitly manufactured fentanyls in the drug supply. Drug checking services (DCS) represent a promising harm reduction strategy and characterizing experiences of use and interest among people who inject drugs (PWID) is a priority.

Methods: Between February-October 2022, PWID participating in a cohort study in San Diego, CA and Tijuana, Mexico completed structured surveys including questions about DCS, socio-demographics and substance use behaviors.

"": Experiences with rising overdose incidence caused by drug supply changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in the San Diego-Tijuana border metroplex.

Background: People who use drugs (PWUD) in the San Diego, USA and Tijuana, Mexico metroplex face high overdose risk related to historic methamphetamine use and relatively recent fentanyl introduction into local drug supplies. The personal overdose experiences of PWUD in this region are understudied, however, and may have been influenced by the COVID pandemic.

Methods: From September-November 2021, we conducted 28 qualitative interviews among PWUD ≥18 years old sampled from an ongoing cohort study in the San Diego-Tijuana metroplex.

Estimating the impact of a police education program on hepatitis C virus transmission and disease burden among people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico: A dynamic modeling analysis.

Background And Aims: Criminalization of drug use and punitive policing are key structural drivers of hepatitis C virus (HCV) risk among people who inject drugs (PWID). A police education program (Proyecto Escudo) delivering training on occupational safety together with drug law content was implemented between 2015 and 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico, to underpin drug law reform implementation. We used data from a longitudinal cohort of PWID in Tijuana to inform epidemic modeling and assess the long-term impact of Escudo on HCV transmission and burden among PWID in Tijuana.

Fentanyl, Heroin, and Methamphetamine-Based Counterfeit Pills Sold at Tourist-Oriented Pharmacies in Mexico: An Ethnographic and Drug Checking Study.

Background: Fentanyl- and methamphetamine-based counterfeit prescription drugs have driven escalating overdose death rates in the US, however their presence in Mexico has not been assessed. Our ethnographic team has conducted longitudinal research focused on illicit drug markets in Northern Mexico since 2018. In 2021-2022, study participants described the arrival of new, unusually potent tablets sold as ostensibly controlled substances, without a prescription, directly from pharmacies that cater to US tourists.

Characterizing Help-Seeking Searches for Substance Use Treatment From Google Trends and Assessing Their Use for Infoveillance: Longitudinal Descriptive and Validation Statistical Analysis.

Background: There is no recognized gold standard method for estimating the number of individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) seeking help within a given geographical area. This presents a challenge to policy makers in the effective deployment of resources for the treatment of SUDs. Internet search queries related to help seeking for SUDs using Google Trends may represent a low-cost, real-time, and data-driven infoveillance tool to address this shortfall in information.

A stakeholder-driven framework for measuring potential change in the health risks of people who inject drugs (PWID) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: People who inject drugs (PWID) have likely borne disproportionate health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. PWID experienced both interruptions and changes to drug supply and delivery modes of harm reduction, treatment, and other medical services, leading to potentially increased risks for HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and overdose. Given surveillance and research disruptions, proximal, indirect indicators of infectious diseases and overdose should be developed for timely measurement of health effects of the pandemic on PWID.

Prison-based interventions are key to achieving HCV elimination among people who inject drugs in New South Wales, Australia: A modelling study.

Background & Aims: People who inject drugs (PWID) experience high incarceration rates which are associated with increased hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission risk. We assess the importance of prison-based interventions for achieving HCV elimination among PWID in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

Methods: A model of incarceration and HCV transmission among PWID was calibrated in a Bayesian framework to epidemiological and incarceration data from NSW, incorporating elevated HCV acquisition risk among recently released PWID.

Modelling the contribution of incarceration and public health oriented drug law reform to HCV transmission and elimination among PWID in Tijuana, Mexico.

Background: Incarceration is associated with increased risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) among people who inject drugs (PWID). Mexico's previous attempt in implementing a public health-oriented drug law reform resulted in minimal impact on incarceration among PWID. However, implementation of reforms alongside Mexico's HCV elimination program has the potential to reshape the HCV epidemic among PWID in the next decade.

Network-level HIV risk norms are associated with individual-level HIV risk and harm reduction behaviors among people who inject drugs: a latent profile analysis.

The COVID-19 related U.S.-Mexico border-crossing restrictions disrupted social networks and HIV harm reduction services among people who inject drugs (PWID) in San Diego and Tijuana.

Illicit Substance Use and the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States: A Scoping Review and Characterization of Research Evidence in Unprecedented Times.

We carried out a scoping review to characterize the primary quantitative evidence addressing changes in key individual/structural determinants of substance use risks and health outcomes over the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States (US). We systematically queried the LitCovid database for US-only studies without date restrictions (up to 6 August 2021). We extracted quantitative data from articles addressing changes in: (a) illicit substance use frequency/contexts/behaviors, (b) illicit drug market dynamics, (c) access to treatment and harm reduction services, and (d) illicit substance use-related health outcomes/harms.