Key risk factors for populations especially vulnerable to HIV infection

Since 2012, no data can be found on any scientific research accomplished in correction facilities of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service with its aim being to identify HIV risk factors and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) among prisoners. In correction facilities of the Sverdlovsk oblast, each fifth prisoner is HIV-positive and in future this means a grave HIV burden for the regional population. Between 2020 and 2022, an anonymous survey was accomplished within an observational analytical cross-sectional study. Overall, 302 men participated in it; they were all former prisoners who applied for aid to a socially-oriented nonprofit organization during their social adaptation. Injection drug use (IDU) was established to be the basic factor able to cause HIV in the analyzed group. Among HIV-positive respondents, 94.3 % had such experience prior to and during their service; among other prisoners, 55.6 % reported IDU (p