HIV among people who inject drugs in Hungary
Abstract Background Before 2014 (the year of closure of the two largest needle exchange programs in Hungary, which halved the number of available syringes in the country despite increased injecting risk practices) no HIV was reportedly acquired in Hungary among people who inject drugs (PWIDs) who we...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2017-10-01
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| Series: | Infectious Diseases of Poverty |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40249-017-0360-9 |
| _version_ | 1818154332664627200 |
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| author | András Ortutay V. Anna Gyarmathy Zsuzsa Marjanek Károly Nagy József Rácz István Barcs |
| author_facet | András Ortutay V. Anna Gyarmathy Zsuzsa Marjanek Károly Nagy József Rácz István Barcs |
| author_sort | András Ortutay |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Before 2014 (the year of closure of the two largest needle exchange programs in Hungary, which halved the number of available syringes in the country despite increased injecting risk practices) no HIV was reportedly acquired in Hungary among people who inject drugs (PWIDs) who were not also men who had sex with other men (MSM). In 2014, one and in 2015 two non-MSM PWIDs were newly diagnosed with HIV who supposedly became infected in Hungary, and both incident HIV cases in 2015 were diagnosed in the AIDS stage. In addition, two new (albeit supposedly imported) non-MSM PWID cases were also registered in the first three quarters of 2016, one of which subsequently was diagnosed with and then died of AIDS. At the same time, the prevalence of HCV doubled among PWIDs (from 24% to 49% in Hungary and from 34% to 61% in Budapest). Case presentation The case that we discuss in this paper is a male PWID, who was diagnosed with HIV and AIDS in May of 2015 and then died of AIDS the next month. His HIV infection status was detected with delay, and then appeared in the official statistics as an incident PWID HIV case and an incident PWID AIDS case, but not as an incident PWID AIDS death. No contact tracing followed, even though it would have been relatively easy considering the circumstances. To our knowledge, no HIV post-exposure protocol exists in hospitals, in case of HIV exposure due to an eventual needle-stick injury. Conclusions Our paper draws attention to recently published HIV and AIDS surveillance data, and shows the failure of the system. While sounding the alarm based on three newly detected PWID HIV cases in the past 2 years may be premature, there are definitely serious problems in the HIV detection and tracing system among PWIDs in Hungary. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T14:24:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1e9805b681624259ad7436becd53c79d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2049-9957 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T14:24:50Z |
| publishDate | 2017-10-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Infectious Diseases of Poverty |
| spelling | doaj.art-1e9805b681624259ad7436becd53c79d2022-12-22T01:02:43ZengBMCInfectious Diseases of Poverty2049-99572017-10-01611510.1186/s40249-017-0360-9HIV among people who inject drugs in HungaryAndrás Ortutay0V. Anna Gyarmathy1Zsuzsa Marjanek2Károly Nagy3József Rácz4István Barcs5Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit, Jávorszky Ödön HospitalJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthAnaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit, Jávorszky Ödön HospitalFaculty of General Medicine, Institute of Medical Microbiology, Semmelweis UniversityInstitute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd UniversityFaculty of Health Sciences, Department of Epidemiology, Semmelweis UniversityAbstract Background Before 2014 (the year of closure of the two largest needle exchange programs in Hungary, which halved the number of available syringes in the country despite increased injecting risk practices) no HIV was reportedly acquired in Hungary among people who inject drugs (PWIDs) who were not also men who had sex with other men (MSM). In 2014, one and in 2015 two non-MSM PWIDs were newly diagnosed with HIV who supposedly became infected in Hungary, and both incident HIV cases in 2015 were diagnosed in the AIDS stage. In addition, two new (albeit supposedly imported) non-MSM PWID cases were also registered in the first three quarters of 2016, one of which subsequently was diagnosed with and then died of AIDS. At the same time, the prevalence of HCV doubled among PWIDs (from 24% to 49% in Hungary and from 34% to 61% in Budapest). Case presentation The case that we discuss in this paper is a male PWID, who was diagnosed with HIV and AIDS in May of 2015 and then died of AIDS the next month. His HIV infection status was detected with delay, and then appeared in the official statistics as an incident PWID HIV case and an incident PWID AIDS case, but not as an incident PWID AIDS death. No contact tracing followed, even though it would have been relatively easy considering the circumstances. To our knowledge, no HIV post-exposure protocol exists in hospitals, in case of HIV exposure due to an eventual needle-stick injury. Conclusions Our paper draws attention to recently published HIV and AIDS surveillance data, and shows the failure of the system. While sounding the alarm based on three newly detected PWID HIV cases in the past 2 years may be premature, there are definitely serious problems in the HIV detection and tracing system among PWIDs in Hungary.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40249-017-0360-9People who inject drugsHIV/AIDSSurveillance |
| spellingShingle | András Ortutay V. Anna Gyarmathy Zsuzsa Marjanek Károly Nagy József Rácz István Barcs HIV among people who inject drugs in Hungary Infectious Diseases of Poverty People who inject drugs HIV/AIDS Surveillance |
| title | HIV among people who inject drugs in Hungary |
| title_full | HIV among people who inject drugs in Hungary |
| title_fullStr | HIV among people who inject drugs in Hungary |
| title_full_unstemmed | HIV among people who inject drugs in Hungary |
| title_short | HIV among people who inject drugs in Hungary |
| title_sort | hiv among people who inject drugs in hungary |
| topic | People who inject drugs HIV/AIDS Surveillance |
| url | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40249-017-0360-9 |
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