Racial/ethnic disparities in HIV infection among people who inject drugs: an international systematic review and meta-analysis.

Aims: The Ethnic Minority Meta-Analysis (EMMA) aims to assess racial/ethnic disparities in HIV infection among people who inject drugs (PWID) across various countries. This is the first report of the data.

Methods: Standard systematic review/meta-analysis methods were utilized, including searching for, screening and coding published and unpublished reports and meta-analytical statistics.

Transitions from injection-drug-use-concentrated to self-sustaining heterosexual HIV epidemics: patterns in the international data.

Background: Injecting drug use continues to be a primary driver of HIV epidemics in many parts of the world. Many people who inject drugs (PWID) are sexually active, so it is possible that high-seroprevalence HIV epidemics among PWID may initiate self-sustaining heterosexual transmission epidemics.

Methods: Fourteen countries that had experienced high seroprevalence (<20%) HIV epidemics among PWID and had reliable data for injection drug use (IDU) and heterosexual cases of HIV or AIDS were identified.

Are females who inject drugs at higher risk for HIV infection than males who inject drugs: an international systematic review of high seroprevalence areas.

Objective: There are multiple reasons why females who inject drugs may be more likely to become infected with HIV than males who inject drugs. Where this is the case, special HIV prevention programs for females would be needed.

Design: International systematic review and meta-analysis of studies across 14 countries.

Respondent-driven sampling in a study of drug users in New York City: notes from the field.

Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), used respondent-driven sampling (RDS) in a study of HIV seroprevalence among drug users in New York City in 2004. We report here on operational issues with RDS including recruitment, coupon distribution, storefront operations, police and community relations, and the overall lessons we learned. Project staff recruited eight seeds from a syringe exchange in Lower Manhattan to serve as the initial study participants.

Expansion of opiate agonist treatment: an historical perspective.

Untreated opiate addiction remains a major health care crisis in New York and in most other urban centers in America. Optimism for closing the gap between need and demand for treatment and its availability has greeted the recent approval of a new opiate medication for addiction, buprenorphine--which unlike methadone may be prescribed by independent, office-based practitioners. The likelihood of buprenorphine fulfilling its potential is assessed in the light of the massive expansion of methadone treatment more than 30 years earlier.

Comment on Soar, et al.'s case study of problems and use of Ecstasy.

This case report provides no basis for drawing any conclusions regarding possible adverse effects of use of Ecstasy.

Long-term effects of syringe exchange on risk behavior and HIV prevention.

The purpose of this study was to assess stability of population-level injection risk behavior over time among participants in a syringe exchange program and compare factors affecting syringe sharing at two points in time. Participants of the Tacoma Syringe Exchange Program were interviewed in 1997 and 2001 using audio computer assisted self-interviewing technology. In each wave of data collection, a random cross section of participants was recruited and interviewed, with no attempt made to follow respondents over time.