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Grant Awarded to Study HCV Among Young Adults in Southern Ohio
A University of Cincinnati professor has received a 3-year, $900,000 grant from the CDC to study the spread of hepatitis C virus infection among young adults in rural and suburban areas in southern Ohio who inject drugs.
The project is known as the Southern Ohio Prevents Hepatitis Project, or StOPHeP.
“The purpose of the grant is to do both epidemiologic and interventionalist work with young people, ages 18 to 30, who inject drugs and either already have hepatitis C or are at risk of contracting hepatitis C,” principal investigator Judith Feinberg, MD, professor of internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati, said in a press release.
The grant will allow the researchers to hire and train outreach workers to recruit young people who use injection drugs and have HCV or are at risk of contracting HCV and are residing in 21 counties in southern Ohio.
“The idea is to focus on suburban and rural areas, where the heroin and opioid drug epidemic is really centered,” Feinberg stated.
Participants will be tested for HCV and HIV, and those who are infected will be referred to area physicians for medical care. Outreach workers will recruit young injection drug users by working with drug treatment programs and syringe exchange and substance abuse education programs. The outreach workers will also use social networking and texting to connect with at-risk individuals.
“Because this is aimed at young people, there is a lot of social media involvement, and the outreach staff we are going to have in the field will also be young people with a lived history of injection drug use that have been clean for at least 2 years,” Feinberg said.