I-TRACK: Enhanced Surveillance of Risk Behaviours among Injecting Drug Users in Canada

One of the key components of the new Federal Initiative to Address HIV/AIDS in Canada is knowledge development, which will enhance our understanding of the HIV epidemic and inform the development of policies, programs, and interventions, such as new prevention technologies and therapies. The knowledge development component emphasizes the improvement of population-specific surveillance, including epidemiologic, socio-behavioural, ethnographic, and community-based research. The Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division, Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, has established I-Track, which is an enhanced surveillance system to track risk behaviours associated with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in people who inject drugs (IDU) in urban and semi-urban centres across Canada. It forms a part of the second-generation HIV surveillance as advocated by the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Through this system, national and, to a certain extent, provincial and local trends in injecting and sexual risk behaviours among IDU can be assessed. Behavioural trend data obtained through the system will provide important information that can be triangulated with other data sources to assess the effects of prevention efforts and policies at the local, provincial, and national levels.

The surveillance system is being established in collaboration with local and provincial health departments, community-based organizations, and researchers. Within the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), internal collaborations involve the Community Acquired Infections Division, the National HIV and Retrovirology Laboratory, and the HIV/AIDS Policy, Coordination and Programs Division.

• Phase I Report - August 2006
• Pilot Survey Report - February 2004