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Confronting the HIV, Tuberculosis, Addiction, and Incarceration Syndemic in Southeast Asia: Lessons Learned from Malaysia

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Abstract

Throughout Southeast Asia, repressive drug laws have resulted in high rates of imprisonment in people who inject drugs (PWID) and people living with HIV (PLH), greatly magnifying the harm associated with HIV, tuberculosis, and addiction. We review findings from Malaysia’s largest prison to describe the negative synergistic effects of HIV, tuberculosis, addiction, and incarceration that contribute to a ‘perfect storm’ of events challenging public and personal health and offer insights into innovative strategies to control these converging epidemics. The majority of PLH who are imprisoned in Malaysia are opioid dependent PWID. Although promoted by official policy, evidence-based addiction treatment is largely unavailable, contributing to rapid relapse and/or overdose after release. Similarly, HIV treatment in prisons and compulsory drug treatment centers is sometimes inadequate or absent. The prevalence of active tuberculosis is high, particularly in PLH, and over 80 % of prisoners and prison personnel are latently infected. Mandatory HIV testing and subsequent segregation of HIV-infected prisoners increases the likelihood of tuberculosis acquisition and progression to active disease, amplifying the reservoir of infection for other prisoners. We discuss strategies to control these intersecting epidemics including screening linked to standardized treatment protocols for all three conditions, and effective transitional programs for released prisoners. For example, recently introduced evidence-based interventions in prisons like antiretroviral therapy (ART) to treat HIV, isoniazid preventive therapy to treat latent tuberculosis infection, and methadone maintenance to treat opioid dependence, have markedly improved clinical care and reduced morbidity and mortality. Since introduction of these interventions in September 2012, all-cause and HIV-related mortality have decreased by 50.0 % and 75.7 %, respectively. We discuss the further deployment of these interventions in Malaysian prisons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Systems Science, College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Gabriel J. Culbert

  2. Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA), Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Veena Pillai, Joseph Bick, Haider A. Al-Darraji, Jeffrey A. Wickersham, Martin P. Wegman, Alexander R. Bazazi, Enrico Ferro, Adeeba Kamarulzaman & Frederick L. Altice

  3. Centre for International Health, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Haider A. Al-Darraji

  4. Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, AIDS Program, 135 College Street, Suite 323, New Haven, CT, 06510-2283, USA

    Jeffrey A. Wickersham, Enrico Ferro & Frederick L. Altice

  5. College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Martin P. Wegman

  6. Yale University School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, New Haven, CT, USA

    Alexander R. Bazazi & Frederick L. Altice

  7. Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Michael Copenhaver

Authors
  1. Gabriel J. Culbert
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  2. Veena Pillai
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  3. Joseph Bick
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  4. Haider A. Al-Darraji
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  5. Jeffrey A. Wickersham
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  6. Martin P. Wegman
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  7. Alexander R. Bazazi
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  8. Enrico Ferro
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  9. Michael Copenhaver
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  10. Adeeba Kamarulzaman
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  11. Frederick L. Altice
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frederick L. Altice.

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Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse for research (R01 DA025943 to F.L.A.) and career development (K24 DA017072 to F.L.A., K01 DA038529 to J.A.W, F30 DA039716 to A.R.B). Additional funding was provided for research by the University of Malaya’s High Impact Research Grant (E-000,001-20,001 to A.K.) and for career development by NIAID Global Health Equity Scholars Program (R25 TW009338 to G.J.C.), National Institute of Mental Health (F30MH105153 to M.P.W.), Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through a grant supporting the Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellows Program at Yale University School of Medicine to M.P.W., and Yale University (Yale College Fellowship for Research in Health Studies) to E.G.F.

Conflict of Interest

All authors report no conflicts of interest.

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Culbert, G.J., Pillai, V., Bick, J. et al. Confronting the HIV, Tuberculosis, Addiction, and Incarceration Syndemic in Southeast Asia: Lessons Learned from Malaysia. J Neuroimmune Pharmacol 11, 446–455 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11481-016-9676-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11481-016-9676-7

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