Description of Project

This two-year project aimed to explore the relationship between Islam, local culture, drug use, and harm reduction service utilization among injecting drug users (IDUs) in Kabul, Afghanistan. It also assessed the impact of integrated VCT-NSP programs on behavioral risk reduction, client satisfaction, disease incidence (HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and C), and program uptake, and measured community knowledge and attitudes towards harm reduction programming. The study was conducted in three phases: Phase 1 used qualitative methods (focus group discussions and freelist interviews) to describe the context of drug use and services; Phase 2 involved a longitudinal cohort assessment of IDUs to evaluate the impact of VCT-NSP services over time; and Phase 3 assessed community knowledge and attitudes using a pre/post design after sharing interim findings from Phase 2.