Measuring individual-level needle and syringe coverage among people who inject drugs in Myanmar

The International Journal on Drug Policy
D O'KeefeP Dietze

Abstract

Myanmar has prioritised people who inject drugs (PWID) as a key population for HIV mitigation efforts, with targets for needle and syringe distribution set at a population level. However, individual-level coverage, defined as the percentage of an individual's injecting episodes covered by a sterile syringe, is a more sensitive measure of intervention coverage. We sought to examine individual-level coverage in a sample of PWID in Myanmar. We recruited 512 PWID through urban drop-in-centres in Yangon, Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin. Participants were administered a quantitative questionnaire covering five domains: demographics, drug use, treatment and coverage, and injecting risk behaviour. We calculated past fortnight individual-level syringe coverage, estimating levels of sufficient (≥100% of injecting episodes covered by a sterile syringe) and insufficient (<100%) coverage, and examined associations between key variables and insufficient coverage via logistic regression. Our sample was predominately male (97%), employed (76%), and living in stable accommodation (96%), with a median age of 27. All participants reported heroin as the drug most frequently injected, and injected a median of 27 times in the past two weeks. Nineteen per ...Continue Reading

Citations

Sep 3, 2019·Bulletin of the World Health Organization·Daniel O'KeefePaul M Dietze
Apr 23, 2021·AIDS and Behavior·Sean T AllenSusan G Sherman
Jun 18, 2021·Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment·Tyler S BartholomewHansel E Tookes

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