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Training to promote evidence-based services and implement effective HIV and HCV programs for people who use stimulant drugs

Santo Domingo, 17 October 2019. "Improving the quality and warmth of services, sensitizing and training staff involved in the drug user population, increasing awareness of the problem and improving group involvement, teamwork and inter-institutional coordination" are the objectives of the training to promote evidence-based services and implement effective HIV and HCV programs for people who use stimulant drugs, according to Lucía Fermín, one of the four experts who taught the workshop modules.


This training was provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the National Drug Council, and the National Health Service, with funding from the Country Envelop of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).


The 31 participants who received the training belong to the Comprehensive Care Units, the Center for Comprehensive Care of Dependencies, COIN, several hospitals in the country and the NGO Mesón de Dios. 
In 2017 there were an estimated 1.8 million new HIV-infected people globally; and 47% of these occurred among members of key populations - men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers, transgender women and prisoners - and their sexual partners.
It is estimated that members of key populations are much more likely to be living with HIV than members of the general population.
Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, the focus on HIV prevention, treatment and care among people who use drugs has focused on the needs of people who inject drugs, primarily those who inject opiates.


However, data show that there are HIV-related risks associated with the use of non-injecting stimulant drugs, as well as unsafe injection of non-injecting stimulant drugs, including cocaine, amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) (excluding MDMA), and new psychoactive stimulant substances (NPS). Stimulant drug use has also been associated with high risks of HIV transmission through unsafe sexual behaviour in certain subsets of key populations.