Injecting drug use among Aboriginal people in New South Wales

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Injecting drug use among Aboriginal people in New South Wales

21 May 2012

The National Centre in HIV Social Research and the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW announce the release of an updated jointly produced research brief: Injecting drug use among Aboriginal people in NSW.

This research brief describes patterns of injecting drug use and blood borne virus (BBV)-related risk practices among a sample of Aboriginal people who inject drugs (PWID) who were recruited from pharmacies in NSW. Compared to non-Aboriginal respondents, Aboriginal respondents had significantly more risk factors for the acquisition of hepatitis C, including being more likely to have been in prison in the previous year, inject on a daily basis, share ancillary equipment, and have poorer hepatitis C-related knowledge. Importantly, Aboriginal respondents were no more or less likely to have used services such as hepatitis C testing and drug treatment.

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