Assessment of Tennessee's county-level vulnerability to hepatitis C virus and HIV outbreaks using socioeconomic, healthcare, and substance use indicators.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and injection drug use are syndemic in the central Appalachian states. In Tennessee (TN), declines in HIV among persons who inject drugs (PWID) stalled, and HCV infection rates increased significantly from 2013-2017. To better target strategies to address the syndemic, county-level socioeconomic, opioid use, access to healthcare, and health factors were modeled to identify indicators predictive of vulnerability to an HIV/HCV outbreak among PWID in TN.

Methods

Newly reported chronic HCV cases among persons aged 13-39 years in 2016-2017 were used as a proxy for county-level HIV/HCV vulnerability among TN's 95 counties. Seventy-five publicly available county-level measures from 2016-2017 were collected and

SUBMITTER: Vakili J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9352017 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature