Juan Louis Mosqueda Gómez

Session was focused to rise the awareness about the risks of people who use drugs or alcohol, they are less likely to know their HIV-positive status, they have increased risk of poor HIV outcomes and also increased risk to get HCV, so they need tailored strategies for diagnosis and retention

Sara Puryear and Adrienne Shapiro showed that drinkers were less likely to know their HIV-positive status, less likely to be on ART, and also they have lower odds of being retained in care at 12 months and getting VL suppression. Data of Olga Varetzka showed that cascade trends among PWID in Ukraine improved from 2011-2017 by scaling-up of community-based services for them. Tanyaporn Wanson showed data from a cohort of MSM followed after acute HIV infection, they had a high risk to get HCV during follow-up, with higher risk among them participating in group sex or using methamphetamine. Keshab Deuba in a cross-sectional survey founded a high prevalence of HCV-HIV co-infection (6%) among women who inject drugs in Kathmandu. Carlos del Rio showed how a program for providers who prescribe opioids for PLWH suffering from chronic pain can help them to get more confidence and satisfaction in this activity.

The session was very important to raise awareness about vulnerable populations such as people who use drugs or alcohol. These abstracts allowed us to know the high risk that they have of being infected with HIV and also get coinfections as HCV. This groups have a lot of difficulties that led them to get worse results in the cascade of treatment. The speakers were particularly enfatic about the need for tailored strategies for diagnosis of follow-up for this populations, and also the need for implementation estrategies to improve the results actually observed.