estimated that between 5 and 10 per cent of HIV infections have resulted

According to an UNAIDS 2000 report, it is estimated that between 5 and 10 per cent of HIV
infections have resulted from injecting drug use globally. In some countries and areas however,
more than half of reported AIDS cases are attributed to injecting drug use. For example Belarus,
China, Italy, Poland, Spain, Russian Federation and Eastern Europe [3].
Facts around the world…
In Central Asia, more than 80 per cent of new infections are related to IDUs.
By some estimates, there could be as many as 3 million injecting drug users in the Russian
Federation alone, more than 600,000 in Ukraine and up to 200,000 in Kazakhstan. (In Estonia
and Latvia, it has been estimated that up to 1 per cent of the adult population injects drugs,
while, in Kyrgyzstan, that figure could approach 2 per cent). Most of these drug users are male
and many are very young—in St Petersburg, studies found that 30 per cent of them were under
19 years of age, while, in Ukraine, 20 per cent were still in their teens [1].
In parts of China, for example, high rates of HIV/AIDS prevalence have been found among injecting
drug users—35-80 per cent in Xinjiang and 20 per cent in Guangdong [1].
According to official estimates, 65 per cent of Viet Nam’s HIV infections are occurring among drug
users, due to the use of contaminated injecting equipment. Sentinel surveillance in 2002 found
that more than 20 per cent of injecting drug users in most provinces were HIV-positive [1].
A report by the national programme for the struggle against AIDS and sexually transmitted
diseases in Argentina, revealed that the transmission of HIV between IDUs represents 40 per cent
of the total HIV/AIDS cases in the country [4].
The most common modes of HIV transmission worldwide remain unprotected sex, unscreened
blood and blood products, contaminated needles, and mother-to-child transmission. In many
countries of Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America, injecting drug use is the main or a
major mode of HIV transmission. With an estimated 12.5 million people injecting drugs across
the globe, most being between the ages of 15 and 30, there is a huge potential for further
spread of HIV among drug injectors and their sexual partners.
Sharing or use of contaminated injecting equipment or needles is the most efficient way of
transmitting HIV. The level of risk is much higher than from unprotected sexual intercourse
since HIV infected material is injected directly into the bloodstream.
Since injecting drug users are often linked in tight networks and commonly share injection
equipment, HIV can spread very rapidly in these populations through sharing of injection
equipment and through risky sexual behaviour.
In Manipur, India, the proportion of young drug injectors (median age 25) infected with HIV
zoomed from virtually zero in 1989 to 56 per cent within six months and to between 60 per cent
and 75 per cent by 2003 [5].