Human immunodeficency virus among people who inject drugs in Mizoram, North East India

Abstract

Despite the availability of antiretroviral treatment (ART) and harm reduction strategies to reduce human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), people who inject drugs (PWID) remain highly vulnerable to HIV infection, making it a global health problem. In most countries worldwide, injecting drug use have become an important route of HIV transmission. There is a large number of injecting drug users in India and HIV prevalence among them is very high. However, by introducing Targeted Interventions (TI) and Harm reduction services, India progress that India has made in fighting its HIV epidemic has been commendable with decline in new HIV infections over the past decade. Despite the success in reducing and controlling the HIV epidemic in most of the states in India, the state of Mizoram has seen an increase in the prevalence and incidence of HIV in the past five years. Mizoram is a small state located in the northeast of India, sharing international borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar. Mizoram has a high rate of injecting drug use since the entry of heroin from the porous Indo-Myanmar border in the early eighties. Due to the easy availability of drugs and high number of injecting drug users, PWIDs may be the main drivers of HIV in Mizoram. There is no evidence of studies done on HIV among PWID in Mizoram, India which calls for the need to conduct a research thesis in Mizoram. This thesis utilizes the 2015-16 India National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and Mizoram State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) datasets. As a review of literature for the study, the thesis first conducted a systematic review on HIV among PWID in India, using 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. This was followed by using a cross-sectional study to examine factors associated with knowledge, attitudes, and prevention towards HIV/AIDS among adults 15-49 years in Mizoram, Northeast India. The thesis then assesses HIV and its associated factors among PWID in Mizoram. Furthermore, the thesis determines changes in and predictors of HIV among PWID in Mizoram, Northeast India, from 2007 to 2021. Finally, the thesis delves into trends in the HIV mortality rate and its associated factors among PWID in Mizoram, Northeast India. Five papers have been put together to form the core of this thesis.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Kingsley Agho (Supervisor)