Imprisonment: a risk factor for HIV infection counteracting education and prevention programmes for intravenous drug users

Abstract

Objectives: To examine changes of risk behaviour and its determinants as well as risk factors for HIV infection in intravenous drug users (IVDU) with particular attention to imprisonment and its risk patterns.

Setting: In 1993 a multisite cross-sectional study was carried out by standardized questionnaires and blood/saliva samples in which 612 IVDU from Berlin were enrolled.

Results: Multifactorial analysis revealed that the most important risk factor for HIV infection was needle-sharing in prison. In total, 353 IVDU (58%) reported reduced risk behaviour; changes related more to injection behaviour than sexual practices (91 versus 68%). Important determinants for needle-sharing during the last 6 months were intravenous drug use in prison, duration of drug-taking history, and knowledge of a negative HIV test. The most frequently reported reasons for current needle-sharing were having shared needles with only one regular partner (45%) and imprisonment (26%).

Conclusion: Information campaigns and other prevention measures appear to have produced risk awareness in IVDU, and as a consequence, a reduction in risk behaviour. The situation in prisons (no sterile injecting equipment, no effective disinfectants), however, is counteractive to prevention measures implemented outside prisons. An important task for future strategies should be to enable IVDU to avoid HIV transmission while in prisons.