Departmental Affiliations
Javier Cepeda, PhD, MPH, researches the intersecting epidemics of substance use, infectious disease, and justice involvement, as well as interventions needed to reduce these harms on public health.
Research Interests
injection drug use; overdose; HIV; hepatitis C virus; incarceration; harm reduction; drug policy; law enforcement; economic evaluation; mathematical modeling; ALIVE study; Eastern Europe Central Asia; social epidemiology;
Experiences & Accomplishments
My research focuses on characterizing the intersecting epidemics of substance use, infectious disease, and justice involvement. My primary research interests involve 1) understanding how structural factors, such as prohibitionist drug policy, impact risk of fatal and non-fatal overdose, HIV and hepatitis C virus transmission; 2) evaluating the facilitators and barriers of accessing harm reduction and treatment services among people who inject drugs and 3) evaluating the trajectories of substance use, infectious disease, and comorbidities among people who inject drugs. My current work involves application of methods drawn from epidemiology, prevention science, mathematical modeling, and economic evaluation, using data from studies based in the United States, Mexico, and Kyrgyzstan.
Select Publications
Publications from the last 5 years
Gupta, R., Levine, R.L., Cepeda, J.A. and Holtgrave, D.R., 2022. Transforming Management of Opioid Use Disorder with Universal Treatment. The New England journal of medicine, 387(15), pp.1341-1344.
Cepeda, J. Feder K., Astemborski, J., Schluth, C., Kirk G., Mehta, S., Genberg, B. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and vaccination status in a community-based cohort of people who inject drugs. Public Health Reports. 2022 Jul 16:00333549221110299.
Cepeda, J. Thomas, D.L., Astemborski, J., Rudolph, J., Gicquelais, R., Kirk, G.D., Mehta, S.H. Impact of hepatitis C treatment uptake on cirrhosis and mortality in persons who inject drugs: a longitudinal community-based cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2022 Aug;175(8):1083-91.
Smith, L.R., Shumskaia, N., Kurmanalieva, A., Patterson, T.L., Werb, D., Blyum, A., Algarin, A.B., Yeager, S. and Cepeda, J., 2022. Cohort profile: the Kyrgyzstan InterSectional Stigma (KISS) injection drug use cohort study. Harm reduction journal, 19(1), pp.1-13.
Baker, P., Arredondo, J., Borquez, A., Clairgue, E., Mittal, M.L., Morales, M., Rocha-Jimenez, T., Garfein, R., Oren, E., Pitpitan, E., Strathdee, S.A., Beletsky, L., Cepeda, J. Impact of SHIELD police training on knowledge of syringe possession law and related arrests in Tijuana, Mexico. American Journal of Public Health. 2022 Apr 20(0):e1-5.