Afghanistan Andrea Ruff, Gilbert Burnham
PhD Program, Department of International Health, JHSPH
The purpose of this study is to develop a basic epidemiological profile of the state of the HIV epidemic among injecting drug users (IDU) in Afghanistan by identifying the individual level risk factors and structural risk factors associated with an increased risk of HIV/STI/BBD infection, especially among those who have lived outside Afghanistan, and to explore the risk level across 3 regions and among other high-risk groups. This research will help in the development of an urgently needed second generation surveillance system, which will allow policy makers and health officials to gain a better understanding of the behavior and biology of the local epidemic which will enable them to adapt interventions that we already know that are effective among IDU, such as needle and syringe exchange programs, opioid substitution therapy and antiretroviral treatment. Interventions targeting this group will allow to control the spread of HIV/STI/BBI within this group and its spread to other high risk groups that are commonly described as “bridge populations”, and thus, protecting the Afghan general population. | 
