UMass Amherst, Tufts Medical Center Launch Study to Improve HIV Care for Incarcerated People

The University of Massachusetts Amherst and Tufts Medical Center are conducting a study to provide HIV prevention, diagnosis, and treatment to people with opioid operate disorder who are incarcerated in Boston-area correctional facilities.

The research is funded by a $4.74 million CONNECT grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Elizabeth Evans, a professor of community health education in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Dr. Alysse Wurcel, a physician and infectious disease consultant for the Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association, will co-lead the study.

Many people with opioid operate disorder pass through the prison and legal systems. Improved access to high-quality, evidence-based treatment for HIV and other infectious diseases in the justice setting is critical to addressing the overdose crisis.”

Elizabeth Evans, professor of community health education, UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences

Dr. Wurcel adds, “We are trying to escalate the number of people in prison who are tested and treated. Generally speaking, people who are in prison are more likely to test positive for HIV than people who are not in prison. According to CDC guidelines, anyone in prison is at risk.”

People who test positive should receive treatment, and those who test negative should receive HIV medication before exposure to prevent the disease. Treatment and prevention during incarceration involves taking medication daily, Wurcel says.

“Dr. Wurcel and I are fortunate to be conducting this study in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Suffolk County Corrections System, where there is unprecedented cross-sectoral motivation to learn how to improve HIV care for incarcerated individuals and integrate HIV care into existing prison programs,” Evans says.

Initial research efforts 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 among incarcerated individuals, Suffolk prison staff, and other community partners.

“HIV testing and HIV prevention medications (pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP) are evidence-based and cost-effective, but they do not adequately reach people involved in the justice system,” says Linnea Evans. “Many of them are from minority racial/ethnic groups and live in communities disproportionately affected by HIV and the opioid epidemic. Addressing the health disparities that these gaps in service needs exacerbate for socially and economically marginalized groups is a key impetus for our research.”

The study will serve as a basis for future research that may contribute to the creation of a model HIV treatment and prevention programme for other jurisdictions in the Commonwealth and nationally.

“Our research will facilitate us better understand how to create equitable access to health care and infectious disease treatment for people who are incarcerated and returning to the community,” Jaffe says. “Along the way, we are engaging people with lived and personal experience of incarceration and opioid operate to ensure that the intervention is tailored to the needs of this population.”