New Study Will Provide HIV Prevention and Treatment for Incarcerated People with Opioid Use Disorder

Those who test positive should be given treatment and those who test negative should be offered pre-exposure HIV medications to prevent the disease. Treatment and prevention while incarcerated involves taking medication every day, Wurcel says.

"Dr. Wurcel and I are fortunate to lead this study in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Suffolk County jail system, where there is unprecedented cross-sector motivation to learn how to improve HIV care for incarcerated people and integrate HIV care into the jails' existing programs," Evans says.

Initial study activities are focused on developing an intervention program called ID-TOUCH. Linnea Evans and Kaitlyn Jaffe, assistant professors of health promotion and policy at UMass Amherst, are co-leading efforts to examine the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention by incarcerated people, staff at the Suffolk jails and other community-based partners.

"HIV testing and medications that prevent HIV (pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP) are evidence-based and cost-effective, yet are not adequately reaching justice-involved people," Linnea Evans says. "Many are members of minoritized racial/ethnic groups and live in communities disproportionately impacted by HIV and the opioid epidemic. Addressing the health disparities that these service-need gaps exacerbate for socially and economically marginalized groups is a key impetus for our study."

The study will serve as the foundation for future research that may create a model HIV treatment and prevention program for other jurisdictions around the commonwealth and the country.

"Our research will help us better understand how to create equitable access to infectious disease healthcare and treatment for people living in jail settings and returning to the community," Jaffe says. "Along the way, we are involving people with lived and living experience of incarceration and opioid use to ensure that the intervention is matched to the needs of this population."