The University of Massachusetts Amherst and Tufts Medical Center are conducting a study to provide HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment to people with opioid use disorders who are incarcerated in the Boston area.
The study is funded by a $4.74 million CONNECT grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Elizabeth Evans, professor of community health education at the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, and Dr. Alysse Wurcel, a physician and infectious disease consultant for the Massachusetts Sheriffs Association, will work together to lead the investigation.
Many people with opioid use disorder go through the cancer and legal systems. Improved access to high-quality, evidence-based treatment for HIV and other infectious diseases in the justice system is critical to addressing the overdose crisis.”
Elizabeth Evans, professor of community health education, UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences
Dr. Wurcel adds, “We are trying to increase the number of incarcerated people who are tested and treated. Overall, people who are incarcerated are more likely to test positive for HIV than people who are not incarcerated. According to CDC guidelines, anyone who prison is at risk”.
Those who are positive should be treated and those who are negative should be offered pre-exposure HIV medication to prevent the disease. Treatment and prevention while in prison includes taking medication every day, Wurcel says.
“Dr. Wurcel and I are fortunate to be leading this study in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Suffolk County Correctional System, where there is unprecedented interdisciplinary motivation to learn how to improve HIV care for the incarcerated and integrate HIV care into existing prison programs,” says Evans.
Initial study activities focus on the development of an intervention program called ID-TOUCH. Linnea Evans and Kaitlyn Jaffe, assistant professors of health promotion and policy at UMass Amherst, report efforts to examine the feasibility and acceptance of the intervention by inmates, Suffolk prison staff and other community partners.
“HIV testing and HIV-preventing drugs (pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP) are evidence-based and cost-effective, yet they do not reach enough justice-involved people,” says Linnea Evans. “Many are members of minority racial/ethnic groups and live in communities disproportionately affected by HIV and the opioid epidemic. Addressing the health disparities that exacerbate these gaps in service needs for socially and economically marginalized groups is a key impetus for our study.”
The study will serve as the foundation for future research that can create a model HIV treatment and prevention program for other jurisdictions across the Commonwealth and the country.
“Our research will help us better understand how to create equitable access to health care and infectious disease treatment for people living in prison settings and returning to the community,” says Jaffe. “Along the way, we engage people with lived and lived experience of incarceration and opioid use to ensure that the intervention meets the needs of this population.”
