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Factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in Tajikistan

BACKGROUND: “Low dead space” syringes with permanently attached needles retain less fluid, blood, and HIV after use than standard “high dead space” syringes. This reduces the probability of HIV transmission if they are shared by people who inject drugs (PWID). The World Health Organization recently...

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Autores principales: Zule, William A., Latypov, Alisher, Otiashvili, David, Kirtadze, Irma, Ibragimov, Umedjon, Bobashev, Georgiy V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4608191/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26472669
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12954-015-0069-7
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author Zule, William A.
Latypov, Alisher
Otiashvili, David
Kirtadze, Irma
Ibragimov, Umedjon
Bobashev, Georgiy V.
author_facet Zule, William A.
Latypov, Alisher
Otiashvili, David
Kirtadze, Irma
Ibragimov, Umedjon
Bobashev, Georgiy V.
author_sort Zule, William A.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: “Low dead space” syringes with permanently attached needles retain less fluid, blood, and HIV after use than standard “high dead space” syringes. This reduces the probability of HIV transmission if they are shared by people who inject drugs (PWID). The World Health Organization recently recommended that needle and syringe programs (NSP) offer clients low dead space syringes. The success of this recommendation will depend on PWID switching to low dead space needles and syringes. This paper examines the needles and syringes that PWID in Tajikistan use and factors that influence their choices. METHODS: In May 2014, we conducted six focus groups in Kulob and six in Khorog, Tajikistan, with a total of 100 participants. NSP staff members recruited participants. Focus group topics included the needles and syringes used and factors that influence choice of needles and syringes. Focus groups were conducted in Russian and Tajik, audio recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. The translated files were imported into NVivo 10 for coding and analysis. RESULTS: All participants in both cities were male and reported injecting heroin. Everyone also reported using syringes with detachable needles almost exclusively. The most popular syringe sizes were 2 and 5 ml. Needles ranged in gauge from 25 to 21 g. Needle gauge was influenced by the size of the vein, the viscosity of drug solution to be injected, and problems with blood clotting. Needles ranged in length from 12 to 38 mm, with 25 and 32 mm being the most popular. Needle length was influenced by the depth of the vein being used. Many PWID inject volumes of fluid greater than 1 ml into deep veins that require needles at least 25 mm long and 25 g in diameter. CONCLUSION: Most low dead space syringes are 1-ml insulin syringes with 12 mm 28 g permanently attached needles. Findings from this project suggest that these will not be acceptable to PWID who need larger syringes and longer and thicker needles that are detachable. Low dead space detachable needles appear to be an acceptable option that could overcome barriers to the widespread use of low dead space equipment for reducing HIV and HCV transmission.
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spelling pubmed-46081912015-10-17 Factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in Tajikistan Zule, William A. Latypov, Alisher Otiashvili, David Kirtadze, Irma Ibragimov, Umedjon Bobashev, Georgiy V. Harm Reduct J Research BACKGROUND: “Low dead space” syringes with permanently attached needles retain less fluid, blood, and HIV after use than standard “high dead space” syringes. This reduces the probability of HIV transmission if they are shared by people who inject drugs (PWID). The World Health Organization recently recommended that needle and syringe programs (NSP) offer clients low dead space syringes. The success of this recommendation will depend on PWID switching to low dead space needles and syringes. This paper examines the needles and syringes that PWID in Tajikistan use and factors that influence their choices. METHODS: In May 2014, we conducted six focus groups in Kulob and six in Khorog, Tajikistan, with a total of 100 participants. NSP staff members recruited participants. Focus group topics included the needles and syringes used and factors that influence choice of needles and syringes. Focus groups were conducted in Russian and Tajik, audio recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. The translated files were imported into NVivo 10 for coding and analysis. RESULTS: All participants in both cities were male and reported injecting heroin. Everyone also reported using syringes with detachable needles almost exclusively. The most popular syringe sizes were 2 and 5 ml. Needles ranged in gauge from 25 to 21 g. Needle gauge was influenced by the size of the vein, the viscosity of drug solution to be injected, and problems with blood clotting. Needles ranged in length from 12 to 38 mm, with 25 and 32 mm being the most popular. Needle length was influenced by the depth of the vein being used. Many PWID inject volumes of fluid greater than 1 ml into deep veins that require needles at least 25 mm long and 25 g in diameter. CONCLUSION: Most low dead space syringes are 1-ml insulin syringes with 12 mm 28 g permanently attached needles. Findings from this project suggest that these will not be acceptable to PWID who need larger syringes and longer and thicker needles that are detachable. Low dead space detachable needles appear to be an acceptable option that could overcome barriers to the widespread use of low dead space equipment for reducing HIV and HCV transmission. BioMed Central 2015-10-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4608191/ /pubmed/26472669 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12954-015-0069-7 Text en © Zule et al. 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Zule, William A.
Latypov, Alisher
Otiashvili, David
Kirtadze, Irma
Ibragimov, Umedjon
Bobashev, Georgiy V.
Factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in Tajikistan
title Factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in Tajikistan
title_full Factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in Tajikistan
title_fullStr Factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in Tajikistan
title_full_unstemmed Factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in Tajikistan
title_short Factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in Tajikistan
title_sort factors that influence the characteristics of needles and syringes used by people who inject drugs in tajikistan
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4608191/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26472669
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12954-015-0069-7
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