Searching for Rural Drug Prevention Strategies
University Communications
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11/06/2015
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Roughly 80 percent of injecting drug users in rural Puerto Rico have hepatitis C, and about 7 percent have HIV, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist has found. Kirk Dombrowski is using his expertise in studying how people form social connections to explore how drug users’ social lives influence disease spread.
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- [00:00:02.471]The beauty of a Puerto Rican beach
- [00:00:04.328]stands in stark contrast with what's happening
- [00:00:06.910]in rural areas.
- [00:00:08.551]We're finding Hepatitis C rates in Puerto Rico
- [00:00:10.972]that are among the highest in the world.
- [00:00:13.107]U.N.L. sociologist, Kirk Dumbrowski,
- [00:00:15.420]studies transmission rates of Hepatitis C and HIV
- [00:00:19.302]among injecting drug users in rural Puerto Rico.
- [00:00:22.898]HIV rates stand at about 7% compared with
- [00:00:26.631]80% for Hepatitis C.
- [00:00:29.680]Dumbrowski says, drug users have gotten the message
- [00:00:32.732]about the dangers of sharing needles.
- [00:00:35.388]Even though people aren't sharing needles,
- [00:00:37.116]therefore not getting HIV,
- [00:00:38.928]they are sharing equipment, other kinds of equipment,
- [00:00:41.628]that Hepatitis C can be transmitted through.
- [00:00:44.037]The research is part of UNL's
- [00:00:45.649]minority disparities initiative,
- [00:00:48.014]targeting understudied health issues.
- [00:00:50.574]A social network analysis sheds light
- [00:00:53.156]on the relationships leading to risky behavior.
- [00:00:56.495]The outcome we're hoping to achieve with this
- [00:00:58.831]kind of project is to understand the transmission vectors
- [00:01:01.998]and how human social systems are interacting
- [00:01:04.900]with virus epidemiology to create infection patterns
- [00:01:08.931]that we see, and how to change those and lower them.
- [00:01:11.363]Insights gathered by Dumbrowski and his team
- [00:01:14.275]could be used at home.
- [00:01:16.100]In Nebraska, methamphetamine and opiate use
- [00:01:18.797]is at its highest level ever.
- [00:01:21.262]States like Iowa and Missouri are also seeing increases.
- [00:01:25.218]These are all areas where
- [00:01:27.480]injection drug use is happening,
- [00:01:29.282]and we're sweeping it under the rug.
- [00:01:31.522]So, we feel like the future for
- [00:01:34.871]bringing this message and creating
- [00:01:37.516]specific forms of public health
- [00:01:39.906]intervention specific to rural areas can start
- [00:01:42.615]in Puerto Rico, but our interest is in
- [00:01:45.207]bringing it back here where we feel like
- [00:01:46.977]it's really needed.
- [00:01:48.417]Dumbrowski's research is funded by a nearly
- [00:01:50.572]$3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
- [00:01:54.251]We really feel like we can make a difference
- [00:01:55.979]in the rates of infection
- [00:01:58.880]in rural areas.
- [00:02:00.448]That's a great job when you feel like you can
- [00:02:01.771]make an important difference
- [00:02:04.779]in ordinary lives.
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