Respondent-driven sampling for identification of HIV- and HCV-infected people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men in India: A cross-sectional, community-based analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A major barrier to achieving ambitious targets for global control of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) is low levels of awareness of infection among key populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and people who inject drugs (PWID). We explored the potential of a strategy routinely used for surveillance in these groups, respondent-driven sampling (RDS), to be used as an intervention to identify HIV- and HCV-infected PWID and MSM who are unaware of their status and those who are viremic across 26 Indian cities at various epidemic stages.

Methods and findings

Data were collected as part of the baseline assessment of an ongoing cluster-randomized trial. RDS was used to accrue participants at 27 sites (15 PWID sites and 12 MSM sites) selected to reflect varying

SUBMITTER: Solomon SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5705124 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature