HepCure, National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, and Treatment Action Group co-hosted a webinar regarding the injection drug use and health disparities among Puerto Ricans, and implications for HCV care and elimination. Recordings of the webinars in English and Spanish may be found below.
Learning Objectives:
- Classify subgroups within the Latinx community in relation to health care access and challenges.
- Review unique aspects of access to HCV screening, care and treatment among the Puerto Rican PWID community.
- Discuss findings from an access to HCV care study that includes Puerto Rican PWID in NYC.
Presented by:
Camila Gelpí-Acosta, PhD is a native Puerto Rican whose research has focused on disease and overdose vulnerabilities among Puerto Rican PWID in Puerto Rico and in New York City. In 2017 she received her first NIDA award to explore the cultural aspects behind the sustained injection risks of Puerto Rican PWID in NYC. In 2007, she co-founded a syringe exchange program in Puerto Rico (El Punto en la Montaña) and remains today a Board member. She is also a Board member of a mobile syringe exchange program in the Bronx (Bronx Móvil). She is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York.
Yesenia Aponte-Meléndez, PhD is a Project Director and Investigator at the CUNY Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health. She has conducted research on technology delivered interventions, including web-based interventions and interventions delivered via mobile platforms for people who use drugs, as well as behavioral interventions among migrant Puerto Ricans in New York City. She has worked extensively on HIV and Hepatitis C research She received her PhD in Sociology at The New School for Social Research. She serves as Board President of El Punto en la Montaña, a syringe exchange program in Puerto Rico that she co-founded in 2007.