HIV Surveillance and Research for Migrant Populations: Protocol Integrating Respondent-Driven Sampling, Case Finding, and Medicolegal Services for Venezuelans Living in Colombia

Wirtz, Andrea L; Page, Kathleen R.; Stevenson, Megan; Guillén, José Rafael; Ortíz, Jennifer; López, Jhon Jairo; Ramírez, Jhon Fredy; Quijano, Cindy; Vela, Alejandra; Moreno, Yessenia; Rigual, Francisco; Case, James; Hakim, Avi; Hladik, Wolfgang; Spiegel, Paul

doi:10.2196/36026

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…This qualitative research was conducted to inform a multi-site cross-sectional survey evaluating HIV and other health outcomes among Venezuelan migrants and refugees in two metropolitan areas in Colombia: 1) Bogotá and Soacha metropolitan areas and 2) Barranquilla and Soledad metropolitan areas ( Wirtz et al, 2022 ). These sites were selected due to their high concentrations of Venezuelan residents, and their lack of HIV services available through humanitarian channels as can be found in other cities such as Cúcuta.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative assessment of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration, access to healthcare, and social wellbeing among Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Colombia

Stevenson

Guillén²,

Bevilacqua

et al. 2023

Journal of Migration and Health

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative assessment of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration, access to healthcare, and social wellbeing among Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Colombia

Stevenson

Guillén²,

Bevilacqua

et al. 2023

Journal of Migration and Health

Self Cite

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“…Less than half of IDPWID were linked to care, indicating a huge gap in care engagement for Ukrainian IDPs, as we previously suggested [17]. Though normal RDS is recognized as an effective sampling approach for HIV studies in displaced populations (33), we recognize that ART uptake in our sample might be under-estimated given enhanced coupon distribution for HIV-positive participants who were not in treatment. However, the lower level of viral suppression in this cohort (less than half of those in treatment were virally suppressed) is an unbiased indicator of lower levels of HIV treatment engagement amongst IDPWID.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Phylodynamics and migration data help describe HIV transmission dynamics in internally displaced people who inject drugs in Ukraine

Kovalenko

Yakovleva

Smyrnov

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Internally-displaced persons are often excluded from HIV molecular epidemiology surveillance due to structural, behavioral, and social barriers in access to treatment. We test a novel field-based molecular epidemiology framework to study HIV transmission dynamics in a hard-to-reach and highly-stigmatized group, internally-displaced people who inject drugs (IDPWID). We inform the framework by Nanopore generated HIV pol sequences and IDPWID migration history. In June-September 2020, we recruited 164 IDPWID in Odesa, Ukraine, and obtained 34 HIV sequences from HIV-infected participants. We aligned them to publicly-available sequences (N=359) from Odesa and IDPWID regions of origin and identified 7 phylogenetic clusters with at least 1 IDPWID. Using times to the most recent common ancestors of the identified clusters and times of IDPWID relocation to Odesa, we infer potential post-displacement transmission window when infections likely to happen to be between 10 and 21 months, not exceeding 4 years. Phylogeographic analysis of the sequence data show that local people in Odesa disproportionally transmit HIV to the IDPWID community. Rapid transmissions post-displacement in the IDPWID community might be associated with slow progression along the HIV continuum of care: only 63% of IDPWID were aware of their status, 40% of those were in antiviral treatment, and 43% of those were virally suppressed. Such HIV molecular epidemiology investigations are feasible in transient and hard-to-reach communities and can help indicate best times for HIV preventive interventions. Our findings highlight the need to rapidly integrate Ukrainian IDPWID into prevention and treatment services following the dramatic escalation of the war in 2022.

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“…Less than half of the IDPWIDs were linked to care, indicating a huge gap in care engagement for Ukrainian IDPs, as we previously suggested ( 17 ). Though normal RDS is recognized as an effective sampling approach for HIV studies in displaced populations ( 29 ), we recognize that ART uptake in our sample might be under-estimated given enhanced coupon distribution for HIV-positive participants who were not in treatment. However, the lower level of viral suppression in this cohort (less than half of those in treatment were virally suppressed) is an unbiased indicator of lower levels of HIV treatment engagement among IDPWID.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Phylodynamics and migration data help describe HIV transmission dynamics in internally displaced people who inject drugs in Ukraine

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Internally-displaced persons are often excluded from HIV molecular epidemiology surveillance due to structural, behavioral, and social barriers in access to treatment. We test a novel field-based molecular epidemiology framework to study HIV transmission dynamics in a hard-to-reach and highly-stigmatized group, internally-displaced people who inject drugs (IDPWID). We inform the framework by Nanopore generated HIV pol sequences and IDPWID migration history. In June-September 2020, we recruited 164 IDPWID in Odesa, Ukraine, and obtained 34 HIV sequences from HIV-infected participants. We aligned them to publicly-available sequences (N = 359) from Odesa and IDPWID regions of origin and identified 7 phylogenetic clusters with at least 1 IDPWID. Using times to the most recent common ancestors of the identified clusters and times of IDPWID relocation to Odesa, we infer potential post-displacement transmission window when infections likely to happen to be between 10 and 21 months, not exceeding 4 years. Phylogeographic analysis of the sequence data show that local people in Odesa disproportionally transmit HIV to the IDPWID community. Rapid transmissions post-displacement in the IDPWID community might be associated with slow progression along the HIV continuum of care: only 63% of IDPWID were aware of their status, 40% of those were in antiviral treatment, and 43% of those were virally suppressed. Such HIV molecular epidemiology investigations are feasible in transient and hard-to-reach communities and can help indicate best times for HIV preventive interventions. Our findings highlight the need to rapidly integrate Ukrainian IDPWID into prevention and treatment services following the dramatic escalation of the war in 2022.

show abstract

HIV Surveillance and Research for Migrant Populations: Protocol Integrating Respondent-Driven Sampling, Case Finding, and Medicolegal Services for Venezuelans Living in Colombia

Cited by 9 publications

References 53 publications

Qualitative assessment of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration, access to healthcare, and social wellbeing among Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Colombia

Qualitative assessment of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration, access to healthcare, and social wellbeing among Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Colombia

Phylodynamics and migration data help describe HIV transmission dynamics in internally displaced people who inject drugs in Ukraine

Phylodynamics and migration data help describe HIV transmission dynamics in internally displaced people who inject drugs in Ukraine

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