Mujeres que se inyectan drogas y VIH: respondiendo a necesidades específicas

Este informe de políticas tiene como objetivo promover el cumplimiento de la igualdad de género y los derechos humanos en términos de una respuesta eficaz de reducción de daños al VIH entre las mujeres que se inyectan drogas, tanto en entornos comunitarios como penitenciarios. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

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Throughout the world, people who inject drugs (PWID) are all too familiar with stigmatization, vulnerability, marginalization and high risk for HIV.

The situation is even worse for women who inject drugs (WID), who are often ignored and invisible within the larger drug-using population.

National and international research, services, guidelines, training programmes and surveillance concerning people who inject drugs remain overwhelmingly gender-neutral or male-focused. Partly as a result, limited data exist on the role women play among those who inject drugs, and their specific challenges and needs are rarely recognized or understood.

The health and human rights impacts of such invisibility can be very harmful. Women who inject drugs face a range of gender-specific barriers to accessing HIV-related services, and in many contexts they remain a particularly hard- to-reach population, even where harm reduction programmes are in place. The stigma and discrimination that they experience, which is often heightened by gender-based violence and abuse, increases their risk for contracting HIV and other blood-borne viruses, as well as a wide range of sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

This policy brief aims to promote the realization of gender equality and human rights in terms of an effective harm reduction response to HIV for women who inject drugs in community and prison settings. It outlines a framework to achieve that goal which focuses on improving the availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability of women-oriented harm reduction interventions. Suggested good practice tools and guidance are also provided.

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