This article describes the findings from a study which examined efforts to bridge the gaps between research, policy and practice in 10 low- and middle-income countries in which researchers conducting research in one of four clinical areas relevant to the Millennium Development Goals: prevention of malaria (Ghana, Laos, Senegal and Tanzania), care of women seeking contraception (China, Kazakhstan, Laos and Mexico), care of children with diarrhoea (Ghana, India, Pakistan and Senegal) and care of patients with tuberculosis (China, India, Iran and Mexico) were surveyed
The PLACE method is designed to expose sexual and injection drug use networks, identify sites where high-risk populations overlap and help focus interventions where they are most needed. This report presents both a baseline assessment of HIV/AIDS risks and an evaluation of condom promotion programmes in four cities in Central Asia. The report shows that sexual and drug use networks are extensive and diffuse. The rate of new partnership formation is also very high, and the use of condoms with new partners is "quite high". Injection drug use is common, and needles are often shared. The report calls for programmes and interventions to concentrate their efforts on sites at high risk, where there is an overlap of high-risk populations (people meeting new partners, youth, injection drug users, sex workers)