Cumulative Effects of Adding a Small Group Intervention to Social Network Testing on HIV Testing Rates Among Crack Users in San Salvador, El Salvador.

The present study evaluates a combination prevention intervention for crack users in San Salvador, El Salvador that included social network HIV testing, community events and small group interventions. We examined the cumulative effects of the social network HIV testing and small group interventions on rates of HIV testing, beyond the increase that we saw with the introduction of the social network HIV testing intervention alone. HIV test data was converted into the number of daily tests and analyzed the immediate and overtime impact of small group interventions during and in the twelve weeks after the small group intervention.

Intervention Reach and Sexual Risk Reduction of a Multi-level, Community-Based HIV Prevention Intervention for Crack Users in San Salvador, El Salvador.

This article examines the effects of a multi-level, community-based HIV prevention intervention for crack users residing in low-income neighborhoods in San Salvador, El Salvador conducted between August 2011 and June 2016. The intervention consisted of three components introduced sequentially: (1) rapid HIV testing in community settings; (2) a social network HIV testing intervention; and (3) small group interventions with crack users who were members of the same social network. The intervention was evaluated with an interrupted time series design in which we used respondent-driven sampling to conduct 7 cross-sectional surveys with crack users along a 3-4 month period for each assessment (total n = 1597).

Using Peer-Referral Chains with Incentives to Promote HIV Testing and Identify Undiagnosed HIV Infections Among Crack Users in San Salvador.

In El Salvador, crack users are at high risk for HIV but they are not targeted by efforts to promote early HIV diagnosis. We evaluated the promise of peer-referral chains with incentives to increase HIV testing and identify undiagnosed HIV infections among networks of crack users in San Salvador. For 14 months, we offered HIV testing in communities with a high prevalence of crack use.

The relationship between community structural characteristics, the context of crack use, and HIV risk behaviors in San Salvador, El Salvador.

This paper explores community structural factors in different low-income communities in the San Salvador, El Salvador, that account for differences in the social context in which crack is used and HIV risk behaviors among crack users. Results suggest that both more distal (type of low-income community, level of violent crime, and poverty) and proximate structural factors (type of site where drugs are used, and whether drugs are used within or outside of community of residence) influence HIV risk behaviors among drug users. Additionally, our results suggest that community structural factors influence the historical and geographic variation in drug use sites.

With God's help i can do it: crack users? Formal and informal recovery experiences in El Salvador.

Crack use has increased dramatically in El Salvador in the last few decades. As with other developing countries with sudden onsets of drug problems, El Salvador has few medical staff trained in addictions treatment. Little research has examined drug users? attempts to reduce or abstain from drug use in countries where government-regulated formal medical treatment for drug addiction is scarce.