U.S. Spent $2 Million on Study Promoting Condom Use Among Intravenous Drug Users in Kazakhstan
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
By Adam Cassandra


Christmas in Astana, Kazakhstan. (Photo courtesy of Government of Kazakhstan/Embassy Web site)
(CNSNews.com) – The National Institutes of Health has spent over $2 million on a study that, among other things, seeks to incease condom use among intravenous drug users in Kazakhstan.

Dr. Nabila El-Bassel, a Columbia University professor in the School of Social Work, proposed the study to “rigorously test the efficacy of an innovative, couples-based HIV/STI risk reduction intervention (CHSR) to decrease new cases of HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) and incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well as to reduce unsafe injection practices and increase condom use among injecting drug users (IDUs) and their heterosexual, intimate partners in Shu, Kazakhstan.â€