High Risk of HIV Among Injection Drug Users

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Table of Contents

A Target Community
Major Health Problems in the Community
The Problem of HIV among Injection Drugs Users
Enabling Factors
Health Promotion Program: Influencing Factors
Required Information
References

A Target Community

Injection Drugs users were chosen as a target population for the Health Promotion Program. It was stated that this group of people are in the high risk of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). It was claimed that 7% of all cases of HIV were connected to drugs injections (Spiller, Broz, Wejnert, Nerlander, & Paz-Bailey, 2015).The spreading of pathogenic viruses among injection drug users was caused by using common syringes inside the community.

Major Health Problems in the Community

Drug-addicted users are suffering from the numerous long-term health problems, including infection diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C. Skin infections are also widespread among the population. Another type of the health problem is mental diseases. It was stated that approximately a half of drug users are suffering from this kind of illnesses (Salina, 2014). The aim of this Health Promotion Plan is to improve the situation with infection diseases spreading among the injection drug users due to the social importance of this problem and the high level of mortality of people with HIV.

The Problem of HIV among Injection Drugs Users

HIV could be considered as a vital problem among the youth population. It is an infection disease which is spread among people through body liquids, mostly, blood, sperm, and vaginal secret. The major risk factors for HIV are unhealthy sexual behavior (unprotected sex) and non-sterile needle or syringe use. Virus can also spread from a mother to a child during pregnancy (Salina, 2014).

Therefore, among the drug users as a target community, the problem of common needle or syringe use during the process of drugs injection is a typical reason for the HIV infection spreading (Spiller et al., 2015). Another widespread problem into the population of drug abused youth is unhealthy sexual behavior and practice of unprotected sex (Shuper, Joharchi, & Rehm, 2014). This Health Promotion Program is focused on a problem of common syringe usage inside the target community as a more specific issue which is more amenable to intervene (Aspinall et al., 2014).

Enabling Factors

The primary aim of this program is to intervene the usage of common non-sterile syringes for intravenous drug injections. This unhealthy behavior is widely spread among the population of drug users. Four main enabling factors which influence this unhealthy behavior could be stated:

people underestimate risk factors and importance of sterile syringes
no access to the sterile injecting equipment among drags users
personal psychological features
social rejection.

Generally, a community of drags users suffers from the poverty. Members of community do not desire to spend money for buying a significant amount of sterile syringes. Besides, a low educational and cultural level of people leads to the lack of knowledge according to infection diseases transmission. These factors could be considered as environmental impact (Crawford et al., 2014). Personal psychological characteristics of population members also lead to unsafe behavior. In particular, drug addiction affected such psychological features as motivation, self-regulation, and responsibility (Köpetz, Lejuez, Wiers, & Kruglanski, 2013). Moreover, it was stated that social rejection of drug users leads to unhealthy sexual and self-harm behavior (Köpetz et al., 2014). The last one is an environmental factor that affects personal behavior. It could be considered as one of the reasons for a low level of self-care among drug users.

Health Promotion Program: Influencing Factors

Among all these factors, lack of awareness of the problem of HIV transmission and absence of the access to sterile syringes are chosen for this Health Promotion Program. It is possible to improve these two environmental factors, while the third one, the social rejection, could not be corrected efficiently. The social reprobation is a circumstance which may hinder the success of an intervention.

To provide an efficient intervention, it is important to make a clear organization. To improve the first chosen problem, lack of awareness, it is important to spread the information about HIV and danger of the common syringe use. Street social advertising could be a possible measure to achieve this goal. Financial resources are required for this program. Governmental social programs and/or charity funds could serve as a potential source of financing.

The intervention on the second factor, no access to the sterile injecting equipment, a social program could be introduced. For example, it is possible to share sterile syringes among drug users or provide them an opportunity to make a clean injection (Aspinall et al., 2014). Again, financial resources are needed to run this program. Second, it is important to provide them an opportunity to buy syringes without a prescription. As it was stated, this practice did not have negative social consequences, and it could lead to a lower rate of HIV spreading (Crawford e al., 2014). Therefore, financial sources, governmental social programs, and regulation of sterile syringes sales can facilitate the intervention.

Required Information

To answer the questions and to plan the Health Promotion Program, data from medical, psychological, and social scientific studies was used. To organize a real program, it is important to get access to real data about the situation with drugs addicted community and HIV rate within it. Anonymous interviews might be helpful to obtain the clear understanding of the current situation within the particular community. It could be considered as a primary source of information. Based on this information, a real intervention can be developed. As a secondary source of information, social scientific researches could be used. It is important to gather information about successes and limitations of similar programs to develop a successful intervention.

References

Aspinall, E. J., Nambiar, D., Goldberg, D. J., Hickman, M., Weir, A., Van Velzen, E.,… Hutchinson, S. J. (2014). Are needle and syringe programmes associated with a reduction in HIV transmission among people who inject drugs: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology, 43(1), 235-248.

Crawford, N. D., Amesty, S., Rivera, A. V., Harripersaud, K., Turner, A., & Fuller, C. M. (2014). Community impact of pharmacy-randomized intervention to improve access to syringes and services for injection drug users. Health Education & Behavior, 41(4), 397-405.

Köpetz, C. E., Lejuez, C. W., Wiers, R. W., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2013). Motivation and self-regulation in addiction: A call for convergence. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(1), 3-24.

Köpetz, C., Pickover, A., Magidson, J. F., Richards, J. M., Iwamoto, D., & Lejuez, C. W. (2014). Gender and social rejection as risk factors for engaging in risky sexual behavior among crack/cocaine users. Prevention Science, 15(3), 376-384.

Salina, D. D. (2014). HIV/AIDS prevention: Current issues in community practice. Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge.

Shuper, P. A., Joharchi, N., & Rehm, J. (2014). Personality as a predictor of unprotected sexual behavior among people living with HIV/AIDS: A systematic review. AIDS and Behavior, 18(2), 398-410.

Spiller, M. W., Broz, D., Wejnert, C., Nerlander, L., & Paz-Bailey, G. (2015). HIV infection and HIV-associated behaviors among persons who inject drugs-20 cities, United States, 2012. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 64(10), 270-275.

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