Drug injection within prison in Kyrgyzstan: elevated HIV risk and implications for scaling up opioid agonist treatments

Purpose Within-prison drug injection (WPDI) is a particularly high HIV risk behavior, yet has not been examined in Central Asia. A unique opportunity in Kyrgyzstan where both methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) and needle-syringe programs (NSP) exist allowed further inquiry into this high risk environment. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A randomly selected, nationally representative sample of prisoners within six months of release in Kyrgyzstan completed biobehavioral surveys. Inquiry about drug injection focused on three time periods (lifetime, 30 days before incarceration and during incarceration). The authors performed bivariate and multivariable generalized linear modeling with quasi-binomial distribution and logit link to determine the independent correlates of current WPDI. Findings Of 368 prisoners (13 percent women), 109 (35 percent) had ever injected drugs, with most (86 percent) reporting WPDI. Among those reporting WPDI, 34.8 percent had initiated drug injection within prison. Despite nearly all (95 percent) drug injectors having initiated MMT previously, current MMT use was low with coverage only reaching 11 percent of drug injectors. Two factors were independently correlated with WPDI: drug injection in the 30 days before the current incarceration (AOR=12.6; 95%CI=3.3-48.9) and having hepatitis C infection (AOR: 10.1; 95%CI=2.5-41.0). Originality/value This study is the only examination of WPDI from a nationally representative survey of prisoners where both MMT and NSP are available in prisons and in a region where HIV incidence and mortality are increasing. WPDI levels were extraordinarily high in the presence of low uptake of prison-based MMT. Interventions that effectively scale-up MMT are urgently required as well as an investigation of the environmental factors that contribute to the interplay between MMT and WPDI.