Volume 13, Number 10—October 2007
THEME ISSUE
Global Poverty and Human Development
Dispatch
West Nile Virus Infection among the Homeless, Houston, Texas1
Tamra E. Meyer*, Lara M. Bull*, Kelly Cain Holmes*, Rhia F. Pascua*, Amelia Travassos da Rosa†, Christian R. Gutierrez*, Tracie Corbin*, Jennifer L. Woodward*, Jeffrey P. Taylor‡, Robert B. Tesh†, and Kristy O. Murray*
Table 2
Self-reported social histories and prevalence of WNV infection from the 2004 Houston Homeless Seroprevalence Study*
| Participant characteristics | All participants, n = 397 (%) | WNV prevalence |
Risk for WNV infection, OR (95% CI) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. (%) | 95% CI | |||||
| Housing status† | ||||||
| Stable housing, 2002 and 2003 | 278 (70) | 13 (4.7) | 2.5–7.9 | Reference | ||
| Unstable housing, 2002 or 2003 | 69 (17) | 7 (10.1) | 4.2–19.8 | 2.3 (0.9–6.0) | ||
| Unstable housing, 2002 and 2003 | 45 (11) | 6 (13.3) | 5.1–26.8 | 3.1 (1.1–8.7)‡ | ||
| Unknown |
5 (1) |
1 (20.0) |
0.5–71.6 |
– |
||
| Homelessness status | ||||||
| Does not consider himself or herself homeless | 111 (28) | 8 (7.2) | 3.2–13.7 | Reference | ||
| Lives mostly on the streets | 50 (13) | 6 (12.0) | 4.5–24.3 | 1.8 (0.6–5.4) | ||
| Lives in temporary shelter | 125 (31) | 10 (8.0) | 3.9–14.2 | 1.1 (0.4–2.9) | ||
| Lives temporarily with friends/family | 64 (16) | 1 (1.6) | 0.04–8.4 | 0.2 (0.02–1.7) | ||
| Other |
47 (12) |
2 (4.3) |
0.5–14.5 |
0.6 (0.1–2.8) |
||
| Length of time homeless | ||||||
| Does not consider himself or herself homeless or homeless <1 mo | 171 (43) | 10 (5.9) | 2.8–10.5 | Reference | ||
| 1 mo–1 y | 153 (39) | 5 (3.3) | 1.1–7.5 | 0.5 (0.2–1.6) | ||
| >1 y |
73 (18) |
12 (16.4) |
8.8–27.0 |
3.2 (1.3–7.7)‡ |
||
| Time spent outdoors on average each day during summer and fall§ | ||||||
| <6 h | 150 (38) | 3 (2.0) | 0.4–5.7 | Reference | ||
| 6–12 h | 150 (38) | 12 (8.0) | 4.2–13.6 | 4.3 (1.2–15.4)¶ | ||
| >12 h | 96 (24) | 12 (12.5) | 6.6–20.8 | 7.0 (1.9–25.5)‡ | ||
| Unknown |
1 (0.3) |
0 (0) |
– |
– |
||
| Substance use# | ||||||
| Current tobacco use | 273 (69) | 20 (7.3) | 4.5–11.1 | 1.3 (0.5–3.2) | ||
| >15 drinks containing alcohol/wk | 70 (18) | 3 (4.3) | 0.9–12.0 | 0.6 (0.2–1.9) | ||
| Ever used street drugs | 281 (71) | 19 (6.8) | 4.1–10.4 | 1.0 (0.4–2.3) | ||
| Ever used needles to inject street drugs | 89 (22) | 6 (6.7) | 2.5–14.1 | 1.0 (0.4–2.5) | ||
| Current drug use (within past 6 mo) | 108 (27) | 11 (10.2) | 5.2–17.5 | 1.9 (0.9–4.3) | ||
| Street drugs used in past 6 mo** | ||||||
| CNS stimulants (crack/cocaine/ amphetamines) | 84 (21) | 5 (6.0) | 2.0–13.3 | 0.8 (0.3–2.3) | ||
| Heroin/opiates | 4 (1) | 0 (0) | – | – | ||
| Marijuana | 61 (15) | 8 (13.1) | 5.8–24.2 | 2.5 (1.0–6.0)¶ | ||
*WNV, West Nile virus; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; CNS, central nervous system.
†p value for trend = 0.02.
‡Significant at α = 0.01.
§p value for trend = 0.002.
¶Significant at α = 0.05.
#Alcohol and current drug use will most likely be underestimated because shelters did not allow use of these substances.
**Not mutually exclusive, hence univariate analysis compared specific drug use with no use of that drug.
