The Harm Reduction Conference took place from December 2nd to 4th, 2024, in Warsaw, Poland. Two abstracts were presented by the COBATEST Network at the meeting.
Dr. Laura Fernández-López participated in the BOOST project discussion table, presenting on enhancing standardized HIV/VH testing data collection for community-based harm reduction services through the adaptation of the COBATEST Network’s data collection tool. She provided an overview of how the COBATEST online tool functions and highlighted the key changes made to the data collection questionnaire, particularly the expanded sections focusing on harm reduction.
Dr.Megi Gogishvili presented a poster on a HIV/STI testing patterns and associated behavioral factors among persons who inject drugs in Europe and Central Asia among COBATEST network members from 2014 to 2023.
In total, 123893 tests have been done during the study period, out of which 3.5% (n=4405) were among PWIDs. Tests done among PWIDs varied from 113 to 149 tests through-out the years, besides 2022 (n=2446; 55.5% of the total) and 2023 (n=836, 19% of the total). Of all tested PWIDs, 0.82% (n=36) had HIV-diagnoses, 0.91% (n=40) had Syphilis diagnoses and 6.15% (n=271) had HCV diagnoses. Of all testers, 89.9% (n=3962) were men, and 77.8% (n=28) of HIV-diagnoses were among this group. Sixty-eight percent (n=3031) of tested PWIDs were 25-44 year-old, and had highest prevalence of HIV-diagnoses (69.4.8%; n=25) compared to all age-groups.
Of all tested PWIDs, 9.24% (n=407) were men who have sex with men (MSM) and 7.11% (n=313) were sex workers. Highest percentage of PWIDs were migrants (11.9%; n=525). Compared to other key-groups within PWIDs, migrants had the highest prevalence of HIV-diagnoses (3.55%, n=18/36; p-value <0.001) out of which 55.5% (n=10) were from outside of EU (p-value <0.001).
Of all PWIDs, 88.7% (n=3909) practiced condomless sex, with 0.8% (n=34) HIV-diagnoses (94.4% of all positive diagnoses). This practice varied from 68% (n=85) to 94.5% (n=790) through-out the years. Total of 1031 (23.4%) testers shared needles, out of which 1.6% (n=17) had HIV-diagnoses (47.2% of all positive diagnoses). This practice varied from 15.9% (n=18) to 32.2% (n=39) through-out the years.
Please find the poster here.