Implementing Comprehensive HIV and HCV Programmes with People Who Inject Drugs (IDUIT)
PRACTICAL GUIDANCE FOR COLLABORATIVE INTERVENTIONS
The pu
rpose of this tool
This tool does not seek to ignore the complex policy and legislative environment around drugs and injecting drug use in most countries, nor the need for advocacy to confront the stigma, discrimination and human-rights violations faced by people who inject drugs. However, it aims primarily to address the question: what can we do now, with the resources we have, in the kinds of environments we face, to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among people who inject drugs?
The tool describes how services can be designed and implemented to be accessible and acceptable to people who inject drugs. This requires respectful and ongoing engagement, and this publication gives particular attention to programmes run in close partnership with, or by, organizations of people who use drugs. It is itself the product of a collaborative process including people who inject drugs, advocates, service-providers, researchers, government officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world, as well as United Nations agencies and other development partners.
The intended users of this tool are public-health officials and managers of HIV and harm reduction programmes; nongovernmental, community and civil-society organizations, including networks of people who use drugs; and health workers. It will also be of interest to advocates and activists for the rights of people who use drugs, and to international funding agencies and health policy-makers.
This tool is one of a series of publications that address HIV prevention with key populations. The others in this series are Implementing comprehensive HIV and STI programmes with sex workers: practical guidance from collaborative interventions (WHO; 2013), informally known as the sex worker implementation tool or SWIT; Implementing comprehensive HIV and STI programmes with men who have sex with men: practical guidance for collaborative interventions (UNFPA; 2015) or MSMIT; and Implementing comprehensive HIV and STI programmes with transgender people: practical guidance for collaborative interventions (UNDP; 2016) or TRANSIT. In keeping with this style, users of this tool may wish to refer to it informally as the IDUIT.