Injecting Drug Use and HIV in Moscow: Results of a Survey

Abstract

Russia has experienced a large increase in injecting drug use since the col/apse of the Soviet Union. Injecting drug use is presently attributed with up to 90 perccent of newly acquired HIV. Peer educators of an outreach program conducted a survey of injecting drug users (IDUs) in Moscow. The survey was supplemented by qualitative field notes. Due to differences in settings and methods, the hospital and street survey resufts are presented separately. A total of 298 hospital and 126 street surveys were collected. Resufts showed that IDUs are young (average 20 years), and the majority were studying or working.Needles were rated as easy to get, although police pressure often deters carrying a syringe. Sharing needles was common; IDUs that used only heroin were significantly less likely to share (RR 0.38 to 0.56). IDUs that had spoken to a peer educator were also less likely to share (RR 0.55). Heroin users had lower rates of hepatitis. Self-assessed HIV risk was unclear for many IDUs. HIV prevalence was 3 percent.

Injecting equipment sharing and perception of HIV and hepatitis risk among injecting drug users in Budapest

“…In Warsaw 31.3% of users shared needle in the previous 30 days between 1995 and 1999, while in 2000 the figure was 16.9% (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction 2002). Studies from the late 1990s found that in Saint Petersburg 41% of IDUs, and in Moscow, between 40-75% were sharing needles (Somlai et al 2002;Reilley et al 2000;Gore-Felton et al 2003). A study among IDUs in Hungary found that 25% of participants reported receptive syringe sharing and 18% distributive syringe sharing, and rates of sharing cookers and cotton were 55% (Gyarmathy & Neaigus 2006).…”

The newest epidemic: a review of HIV/AIDS in Central and Eastern Europe

“…In Moldova, where most HIV infections are associated with drug use, over 80% of IDUs share needles, primarily to show trust towards their friends 16 . In a Moscow sample, 75% of drug users shared injection equipment in the past month and almost half shared or re-used equipment at the time of their last injection 43 . Only 10% of IDUs cleaned needles prior to re-use with bleach or by boiling, while 76% attempted to clean their syringes but in ineffective ways.…”

Can home‐made injectable opiates contribute to the HIV epidemic among injection drug users in the countries of the former Soviet Union?

“…In one 10‐site study with five sites in Russia and five elsewhere in eastern Europe, 46% of IDUs reported chornaya use, but the percentages ranged from 6% in St Petersburg to 84% in Rostov‐na‐Donu and 97% in Poltava, Ukraine [13]. In Moscow, chornaya was used by 36% of respondents interviewed in 1997 and 1998 [14]. Our own fieldwork has found chornaya the predominant injected drug in five of 11 Russian cities we visited.…”

“…One theory implicates the common use of contaminated equipment for the storage, distribution, apportioning or injection of the drug. Another theory is based on reports that in some cases, human blood may be added to the drug solution during its manufacture as a cleansing or filtering agent [10,11,14–16]. If true, the widespread occurrence of either practice could contaminate the drugs themselves with HIV‐1, promoting the epidemic spread of the virus among IDUs [17].…”