Emerging Geographies of Opioids and HIV/HCV: Services, Responses, and Prevention

Dear Colleagues,

During the past decade, the opioid epidemic has fueled an increase in people who inject drugs (PWID), shaping new geographies of HIV/HCV-related risk in the U.S. and abroad. This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, on the “Emerging Geographies of Opioids and HIV/HCV: Services, Responses, and Prevention”, offers an opportunity for multi-disciplinary researchers to come together and bring new understanding to the evolving opioid crisis and its relationship to emerging geographies of HIV/HCV-related risk, health services research and response. To frame the development of effective policy interventions, it is critically important that the interconnected opioid and HIV/HCV epidemics be better understood, along with geographically-varying responses, services, and prevention activities. We are particularly interested in research related to increasing trends in HIV/HCV-related opioid risk and responses (both public policy and new research initiatives) within non-urban communities (i.e., suburban and rural areas). We welcome papers related to evidence of successful prevention/intervention strategies, governmental, harm reduction or otherwise; surveillance to monitor the spread of HIV/HCV-related opioid risk in non-traditional geographic areas; place factors as indicators of opioid-related risk; and analyses of spatial variation in services and response; and submissions on other topics related to this theme. This Special Issue aims to critically examine and advance geographic research and theory in this area by bringing together national and international contributors from geography, medical anthropology, sociology, health policy, epidemiology and public health.

Dr. Barbara Tempalski
Guest Editor

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