Screening injecting drug users for sexually transmitted infections and blood borne viruses using street outreach and self collected sampling

Abstract

Background: Injecting drug users (IDUs) are a marginalised population, who infrequently access health services for screening for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and blood borne viruses (BBVs), and are at high risk of these infections. Objectives: To use street outreach and self collection of samples for STI screening, to establish the prevalence of BBVs and STIs, and to identify risk behaviours among a group of culturally diverse street based IDUs. Methods: This was a cross sectional study of 314 IDUs in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia, conducted over 3 years (1999-2002). We used street outreach as the recruitment strategy with staff "on foot" in injecting and de..