Impact of gender and sex work on sexual and injecting risk behaviors and their association with HIV positivity among injecting drug users in an HIV epidemic in Togliatti City, Russian Federation.
OBJECTIVE
Togliatti City is witness to a large epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associated with injecting drug use (IDU).


OBJECTIVE
This study sought to examine whether risk behaviors and risk factors associated with HIV differed across a sample IDUs by gender and sex work.


METHODS
A sample of IDU (n = 423) comprising female sex workers (SWs) (n = 66), non-sex workers (nonSWs) (n = 89) and men (n = 268) were recruited by field workers in community settings. Behavioral and HIV prevalence data were collected.


RESULTS
HIV prevalence did not differ across the groups ( approximately 56%), but gender adversely affected some risk factors. A comparison of risk behaviors indicated that SWs were more likely to engage in risky injecting behaviors than either men or nonSWs. They were also more likely to report a history of sexually transmitted infections.


CONCLUSIONS
IDUs involved in sex work and IDU nonSWs require specific and targeted interventions to facilitate safer injecting and sexual behaviors.
Platt
Lucy
L
Centre for Research on Drugs and Health Behaviour and the Unit for International Health and Development, Imperial College, London, UK. l.platt@imperial.ac.uk
Rhodes
Tim
T
Lowndes
Catherine M
CM
Madden
Peter
P
Sarang
Anya
A
Mikhailova
Larissa
L
Renton
Adrian
A
Pevzner
Yury
Y
Sullivan
Kathleen
K
Khutorskoy
Mikhail
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012426:Russia / Q000453:epidemiology; D011477:Sex Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015819:Substance Abuse, Intravenous / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014504:Urban Health