Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Injection Partners, Hcv, And Hiv Status Among Rural Persons Who Inject Drugs In Puerto Rico, Patrick Habecker, Roberto Abadie, Melissa L. Welch-Lazoritz, Juan Carlos Reyes, Bilal Khan, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background—The prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV) and HIV among persons who inject drugs (PWID) and the ability of these diseases to spread through injection networks are well documented in urban areas. However, less is known about injection behaviors in rural areas.

Objectives—This study focuses on the association between the number of self-reported injection partners with the PWID’s self-reported HCV and HIV status. Injection networks provide paths for infection and information to flow, and are important to consider when developing prevention and intervention strategies.

Methods—Respondent driven sampling was used to conduct 315 interviews with PWID in rural Puerto Rico during 2015. …

Rural And Urban Injection Drug Use In Puerto Rico: Network Implications For Human Immunodeficiency Virus And Hepatitis C Virus Infection, Courtney Thrash, Melissa L. Welch-Lazoritz, G. Robin Gauthier, Bilal Khan, Roberto Abadie, Kirk Dombrowski, Sandra Miranda De Leon, Yadira Rolon Colon

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Understanding the short- and long-term transmission dynamics of blood-borne illnesses in network contexts represents an important public health priority for people who inject drugs and the general population that surrounds them. The purpose of this article is to compare the risk networks of urban and rural people who inject drugs in Puerto Rico. In the current study, network characteristics are drawn from the sampling “trees” used to recruit participants to the study. We found that injection frequency is the only factor significantly related to clustering behavior among both urban and rural people who inject drugs.