HIV/AIDS among female sex workers, injecting drug users and men who have sex with men in Lebanon: results of the first biobehavioral surveys

Preventing HIV among at-risk groups can help to curb the spread of HIV to the general population. The objectives of this paper is to measure HIV prevalence and associated risk factors among female sex workers, injecting drug users (IDUs) and men who have sex with men (MSM) in Lebanon. It also aims at investigating the prevalence of hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus among Lebanese IDUs.

The authors indicate that structured interviews were conducted with hundreds members of concerned groups, and blood was collected and tested for the sake of the study.

Consequently, the following findings were figured out:

• HIV prevalence is 3.7% among MSM but no HIV cases were detected among female sex workers or IDUs.
• among IDUs, prevalence of hepatitis C virus antibody is 51% and prevalence of hepatitis B virus surface antigen is 5%.
• three quarters of MSM had non-regular male sexual partners during the last year but only 39% use a condom every time.
• overlapping HIV risk exists; 36% of MSM and 12% of IDUs had sold sex.
• previous testing for HIV is lowest among MSM (at 22%) despite their having the highest level of knowledge of perception of being at risk of HIV infection (67%).

 All things considered, the following conclusions were drawn: 

• prevention efforts at greater scale are needed to reach at-risk populations in Lebanon.
  
• these should target MSM in particular, including access to HIV testing, but will need to address and overcome stigma.
  
• for IDUs, surveillance and prevention efforts should integrate both hepatitis C virus and HIV.