Publications on People Who Inject Drugs (PWID)

Injecting drug use (opioids and pharmaceuticals) and HIV associated with injecting drug users (IDUs), has diffused rapidly in the South Asian region. Further, the sexual transmission of HIV from the IDUs to their non-injecting sexual partners has been established. Developing appropriate responses to this emerging problem requires a rapid situation and response assessment (RSRA) of drug users and their regular sexual partners.

Reports that new HIV cases among drug users have stabilized often reflect trends in testing rather than the impact of prevention. The challenge for many of the hardest-hit countries, however, lies in translating commitments into practice, without sacrificing protection of human rights.

In 2003 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began its large HIV prevention program, the India AIDS Initiative, later called Avahan, to curtail the spread of HIV in India. At the time, there was an understandable sense of urgency about the rising prevalence of HIV in the world's second most populous country.

This study examined the experience of PLHIV with linkages to PLHIV support organizations and services in areas of HIV counselling and testing, ART adherence, treatment of opportunistic infections (OIs) and healthcare providers’ (HCPs) attitude toward the targeted marginalized groups. This brief focuses on the findings in relation to IDUs living with HIV.

Between late 2007 and the first quarter of 2008, BSS was conducted in female sex workers (FSW) and injection drug users (IDU), for the first time by the NAP.

National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD presented on November 14, 2008 the HIV prevalence data among drug users in Cambodia.

HIV Sentinel Surveillance 2007 was conducted at 1134 sentinel sites – 646 sites among the general population and 488 sites among the high-risk group population in India.

In Bangladesh it is widely acknowledged that drug use is increasing and accompanied with this are various risk behaviors. Particular concerns are injecting drug use and adverse health consequences such as blood-borne viruses specifically HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C.

Information about HIV and HCV infection, and HIV and HCV co-infection was obtained in separate studies but no overall profile of HIV and HCV co-infections and no detailed geographical variation studies in China were found to exist. This systematic review will present a detailed geographical distribution pattern of HIV, HCV infection and HIV and HCV co-infection among drug users of China.

This report provides biological and behavioural information of HIV related high-risk groups (HRGs) from the 3rd round of surveillance, conducted from March to June 2008 in Pakistan.