Theme: Epidemiology & Public Health Research Year: 2019
Introduction: Ukraine is the country with one of the biggest HIV and HCV epidemics in the World
primarily IDU driven. PWID is not the only population vulnerable for HIV; they have partners who are at
risk of acquiring HIV through unprotected sex; as well HIV and HCV through occasional injecting. To
have a better understanding of the situation we conducted the survey among sexual partners (SP) of
PWID.
Methods: Study population included 769 respondents from 10 cities of Ukraine recruited through linked
RDS in a period of May-August 2015. Sample included those who had sexual intercourse with PWID in
the last 90 days and haven’t injected drugs for the last 30 days. All participants were confidentially
interviewed to assess their risk behavior. Blood samples were tested for HIV and HCV. Data were
analyzed in SPSS 21.0 and RDS-Analyst.
Results: Among all the participants 87.3% were females with the medium age 32.2. 75.5% declared as
never injected. 97.6% were a regular SP of their PWID-recruiters. HIV prevalence in the sample was
15.0%(12.4–17.5%); HCV 25.9%(22.8-29.0%). Among those who declared themselves as never injected
HIV prevalence was 9.2%(6.8–11.6%); HCV 19.3%(16.0-22.5%). Those who never injected and were HCVnegative had an HIV rate 5.6%(4.2–6.8%). Only 4.6% of the respondents were clients of any prevention
program; 3.6% received free condoms and 20.7% had HIV test in the last 12 month, 3% were ever
tested for HCV, 3.4% ever received OST in their life.
Conclusion: The HIV epidemic in Ukraine is still in progress and involving people outside of traditional
KP. One of the next targets is the SP of PWID who either had an experience of injecting in their past or
occasionally inject now, who do not associate themselves with PWID and therefore not a focus of any of
prevention/treatment interventions neither for HIV not for HCV.
Disclosure of Interest Statement: The authors do not have any conflicts of interest in relationships with
this publication and presentation.