People who inject drugs

UNAIDS has just relaunched its Key Populations Atlas, an online tool that provides a range of information about members of key populations worldwide, including sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, peo

Sharing of equipment used for injecting drug use (IDU) is a substantial cause of disease burden and a contributor to blood-borne virus transmission.

People who inject drugs are at high risk of acquiring hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) due to risky injection and sexual practices.

Though timely initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a vital component of effective HIV prevention, care and treatment, people who inject drugs are less likely to receive ART than their non-drug using counterparts.

Remarkable progress is being made on HIV treatment. Ahead of World AIDS Day, UNAIDS has launched a new report showing that access to treatment has risen significantly. In 2000, just 685 000 people living with HIV had access to antiretroviral therapy.

In all countries where there is an HIV epidemic, certain subgroups of the population are at greater risk of HIV than others. These “key” populations include female sex workers (FSWs), men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, and people who inject drugs.

Mounting evidence suggests that laws and policies prohibiting illegal drug use could have a central role in shaping health outcomes among people who inject drugs (PWID).

Previous estimates of the burden of HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) among people who inject drugs have not included estimates of the burden attributable to the consequences of past injecting.

We interviewed 15 South Africans seeking HIV testing to understand the factors that influenced their seeking an HIV test. Reasons in favour of testing included having had unprotected sex, availability of social support if testing HIV positive and modelling test-seeking behaviour to others.

The prevalence of HIV, hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and tuberculosis are higher in prisons than in the general population in most countries worldwide.