A Global Meta analysis of the Prevalence of HIV, Hepatitis C Virus, and Hepatitis B Virus Among People Who Inject Drugs—Do Gender Based Differences Vary by Country Level …

Background Women-specific factors exist that increases vulnerability to drug-related harms from injection drug use, including blood-borne viruses (BBVs), but gender-based differences in BBV prevalence have not been systematically examined. Methods We conducted meta-analyses to estimate country, regional, and global prevalence of serologically confirmed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV; based on detection of anti-HCV antibody), and hepatitis B virus (HBV; based on detection of HBV surface antigen) in people who inject drugs (PWID), by gender. Gender-based differences in the BBV prevalence (calculated as the risk among women relative to the risk among men) were regressed on country-level prevalence and inequality measures (Gender inequality index, Human development index, Gini coefficient, and high, low or middle income of the …