William Zule, DrPH, is a leading expert in community-based HIV prevention research. For more than 25 years, his research has focused on HIV and hepatitis C virus epidemiology and prevention.
Dr. Zule’s work suggests that better syringe designs may substantially reduce HIV infections from syringe sharing. He is currently working with two needle and syringe programs in Tajikistan to develop and test strategies for implementing the World Health Organization’s recommendations regarding the distribution of low dead space syringes to reduce hepatitis C virus and HIV transmission among people who inject drugs.
His early work helped clarify the context of indirect needle sharing in HIV risk among intravenous drug users. Dr. Zule has been a principal investigator, project director, and ethnographer on several large HIV prevention epidemiologic research projects. More recently, he has published a series of papers examining and assessing treatment readiness and entry among out-of-treatment drug users. Dr. Zule currently serves on the board of directors of the North Carolina Harm Reduction Association.
