The article “The use and impact of European Testing Week regional awareness campaigns to increase HIV and viral hepatitis testing coverage” has recently been published in the journal HIV Medicine. Based on insights from the special survey among previous European Testing Week participants, it assesses the impact of the campaign.
In Thessaloniki, Greece, ALEXANDROS, a community-based program targeting people who inject drugs helped identify a new outbreak of HIV infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. An article with an analysis of the outbreak has been recently published in the International Journal of Drug Policy and can be accessed here.
The analysis showed that homelessness and syringe sharing were risk factors in HIV acquisition and underlined the importance of peer-driven initiatives in the improvement of the access of people who inject drugs to HIV care.
The case of Thessaloniki might serve as a relevant good practice example for other contexts.
A new study evaluating qualitative research on substance use and substance use disorders among refugees in terms of practitioners’ and substance users’ attitudes, beliefs and experiences.
The study looks at how the available qualitative research contributes to understanding the development, explanation, consequences and treatment of substance use among refugees. As well as this, the study also hopes to inform the best practises in qualitative interviewing techniques when working with refugees; as this group are vulnerable to stress triggers, and could potentially find the process traumatising.
Refugees are at high risk for substance use and substance use disorders and often face high barriers to treatment and interventions in host countries.
The study looks at a range of different populations, listed below, to try and gain a wide range of experiences and insight from around the world.
This figure from the paper illustrates the number of qualitative studies conducted among different refugee communities between 2008 and 2021.
We are pleased to have been a part of this new paper regarding the different phases of amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) use, and how each phase calls for different interventions.
The information was gathered through a large qualitative study in Europe, with 237 participants across five different European countries, who had used ATS, being interviewed about their experiences.
This ATTUNE study looked at factors which shape indidivual phases of ATS use, as well as ATS use patterns.
This large scale study looks at the phases into and out of ATS use, and also proposes recomendations for prevention, harm reduction and treatment of the different identified phases.
Significant findings include;
