Impact of a Novel HIV Peer Navigation and Overdose Prevention Intervention on Engagement in the HIV Prevention and Treatment Cascade
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Summary
Through the proposed Substance Checking Outreach and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Engagement (SCOPE) study, the investigators will design and evaluate an overdose prevention and HIV prevention study among people who use drugs (PWUD). Specifically, SCOPE will provide access to drug-checking services for PWUD to better understand the contents of the drug supply, in combination with PrEP for those who are HIV-, to both reduce overdose and HIV among PWUD in Baltimore City.
Description
specific study aims are: 1. To prepare the drug-checking technology for deployment in the community through a three-phase process. 1. To calibrate drug-checking technology through testing samples of illicit substances on the Bruker Alpha obtained from the Baltimore Police crime lab (N=335) and those obtained through the SPARC outreach sessions (N=100). 2. To validate the drug-checking technology, measuring sensitivity and specificity in detecting illicit substances of public health relevance, by testing samples obtained through partnerships through Baltimore-based harm reduction organi…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * 18 years or older, * self-reports having used illicit stimulants or opioids at least once in the past 3 months, * self-reports being HIV negative * reports injection drug use in the past 6 months OR reports at least one of the following indicators of sexual HIV risk exposure in the past 6 months: 1. Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) diagnosis in the past 6 months 2. "Condom-less" vaginal or anal sex in the past 6 months * Willing to provide a urine sample for urine drug screening of substances * Willing to undergo rapid HIV testing * Willing to undergo STI testin…
Interventions
- OtherCHECKIT!
Participants will not be assigned to the intervention as it will be available to everyone. Check it will be a van-based HIV- and overdose-prevention program offered in the four areas of Baltimore city from which study participants are recruited. Intervention services will include point-of-care drug checking and PrEP assessment, prescription, and management, and they will be available to everyone, regardless of whether they are part of the SCOPE study cohort or not. Individual-level service usage data collected by intervention staff will not be considered in analysis of outcomes. However, study participants will self-report Check it utilization on the internally-developed surveys at 6, 12, and 18 months.
Location
- Johns Hopkins School of Public HealthBaltimore, Maryland