Hannah Horrocks

Article Summary
Introduction:
The spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a growing problem in subSaharan Africa, but receives little to no attention. It is believed to be spread through drug
injection, so scientists have decided to hold an experiment to see how big of a risk HIV is. This is
an important subject to research because HIV is a problem; not only in Africa, but all over the
world as well. The researchers claim, Tanzania was a prominent entrance route for staging
operations to the United States and Europe, (Ross et al 2008). This is why Tanzania is the main
focus for the research they are conducting. The scientists Michael Ross, Sheryl McCurdy, G. P.
Kilonzo, Mark Williams, and M. T. Leshabari conduct a study on heroin injectors drug use, and
their risk for HIV and other blood-borne viruses of both genders in Tanzania.

Materials and Methods:

Ross et al gathered information from May of 2005 to September 2006; they interviewed
537 individuals of which 315 of them were male and 219 of them were female. 3 people were
left out of the final study because of flawed information. In order for the individuals to qualify
for this study, they had to fit certain guidelines. They had to be at least 18 years of age, have
injected a drug in the past 24 hours, and because it was about HIV, they had to of had sex at least
once in the last 30 days. The questionnaire they used to ask the participants came from the
Tanzanian AIDS Prevention Project Questionnaire. Because this questionnaire was written in
Swahili, there had to be a translator present. The questionnaire consisted of several different
areas of the participants lives, characteristics were measured by asking respondents their age,
marital status, living arrangements, current work situation, and income, (Ross et al 2008).
In order to measure drug usage, the participants were first asked if they currently use
marijuana. If the respondent answered yes, they were then asked if they use drugs by injection;
the only reported drug used by injection was heroin. Since HIV can be passed through

Hannah Horrocks
unsterilized needles, the participants were then asked if they shared needles when injecting
heroin.

Results:
All the participants were over the age of 18 and under the age of 60. A quarter of the
participants were married or living with a significant other at the time of the interview. Most of
the respondents had completed at least 7 years of education and had lived in Tanzania for more
than 10 years. Interestingly, most of the participants were living at home with their parents (59%)
and only 4% were living on the streets. Another interesting fact the researchers discovered was
that almost half of the respondents earned their income by engaging illegal activities including
sex work, while the other 44% maintained a job of some type.
All 537 participants claimed they were injecting heroin and were sexually active at the
time of this interview. The researchers found that more than half of the respondents started
injecting heroin within the past 3 years with most of them injecting an average of three times a
day. They also realized that at least 30% of them injected with used needles at least once in the
past 30 days. Injecting with used needles is a huge risk to spreading HIV. With these statistics,
the scientists thought they were on to something, but with further research they found that HIV
and other blood-borne pathogens risk behavior in heroin injectors is actually low. Ross et al said,
More than 95% of men and women used a new needle the last time they injected More often
than not, the participants used clean needles. Although, participants admitted to injecting heroin
by injecting flashblood (blood withdrawn from another heroin injector).

Discussion:
The results of this research project both supported and contradicted the original
hypothesis. There was a clear connection between the sex of the participants and their drug
career. From the time men first used marijuana to the point of injecting heroin was longer than
women. On the other hand, there was not a clear connection between users who inject heroin and
whether or not they have a blood-borne pathogen. The researcher claim this was the case because

Hannah Horrocks
clean needles are cheap and easily accessible in Tanzania. There are also several limitations to
this article. The individuals involved in the interviews were not random and were chosen from
neighborhoods known for the popular drug use. Also, all of the information gathered were selfreported by the participants which leaves plenty of room for underestimates and exaggerations. If
the scientists wanted to conduct a better research, they would need to use a more random group
of people, drug tests, and interview more than 500 participants.

Bibliography
Ross, M. W., McCurdy, S. A., Kilonzo, G. P., Williams, M. L., & Leshabari, M. T. (2008). Drug
Use Careers and Blood-borne Pathogen Risk Behavior in Male and Female Tanzanian
Heroin Injectors. The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 79(3), 338343. Retrieved October 2, 2016.