Dr Daniela van Santen – Harm reduction revisited: the causal effect of harm reduction programs on infection risk among PWID in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Event date
Tuesday 22nd October 2019
Event time
1:00 PM
Event address
Berg Family Foundation Seminar Room, Level 6, Wallace Wurth Building, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney

Location:

Berg Family Foundation Seminar Room, Level 6, Wallace Wurth Building, Kensington Campus, UNSW Sydney

Contact for enquiries 

Rata Joseph, +61 (2) 9385 0900 or recpt@kirby.unsw.edu.au

Kirby Institute Seminar Series presents

Dr Daniela van Santen  

Dr Daniela van Santen

Postdoctoral Fellow, Public Health Service of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Burnet Institute, Australia

Daniela van Santen is a Venezuelan/Dutch infectious disease epidemiologist, who completed her PhD training at the Department of Infectious Disease Research and Prevention at the Public Health Service of Amsterdam, where she focused on viral infections and co-infections in the Netherlands and in other high-income countries. She is now working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Public Health Service of Amsterdam and the Burnet Institute. Her key interests are HIV and hepatitis C co-infection among key populations such as gay and bisexual men and people who inject drugs, as well as epidemiological and statistical methods to analyse longitudinal data.

 

Abstract

In contrast to many settings, people who inject drugs (PWID) in the Netherlands do not play a substantial role in the current spread of HIV and other blood-borne infections. The early implementation of harm-reduction programs (HRP) (i.e. opiate substitution therapy [OST] and needle and syringe exchange programs [NSP]) might have contributed to declining incidence of these infections over time. Using data from the Amsterdam Cohort Studies with over 30 years of follow up, we assessed the causal effect of HRP on HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B infection risk among PWID.

Twitter: @DanielavSanten