Most At Risk Populations (MARPS)

a) Intravenous Drug Users (IDU)

Acute UFO Study: Acute HCV Infection in Young Injectors

Young injection drug users (IDUs) constitute a distinctive high-risk and understudied group with high rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The University of California, San Francisco, is conducting research that could lead to vaccine development and that can improve understanding of HCV infectivity and the transmission dynamics of acute HCV between young IDUs in injecting and sexual partnerships.

b) Commercial Sex Workers (CSW)

[Pending Content]

c) Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM)

Dr. McFarland, in collaboration with other GHS faculty, conducts research on the epidemiology and prevention of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) in several regions of the developing world. With Chinese partners, he is co-PI of an NIH RO1 to develop and apply behavioral theory-driven measures of HIV risk behavior in Beijing and Chongqing. He is also PI of a Gates Foundation grant to pilot and scale up prevention programs for MSM in China. In Latin America, Drs. Rutherford and McFarland are co-Investigators of the NIH-funded PUMA project (Prevention in Urban Men of the Americas) and the AMPAS study - nationally representative survey of MSM in Brazil. Successful studies of MSM were recently completed with NIH funding in Kampala, Uganda, and Soweto, South Africa. In addition to primary research, GHS faculty are currently providing technical assistance to behavioral surveillance systems and prevention programs that include MSM in China, Uganda, New Zealand, the Philippines, and in the Greater Mekong River Area, and several countries of the Middle East and North Africa.