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It is estimated that there there were 13.2 million injecting drug users (IDUs) worldwide at the end of 2003. Around 78% of these people were living in developing and transitional countries.

The sharing of injecting equipment causes HIV to spread quickly among drug users. According to recent reports, at least 41 countries have IDU populations among which HIV prevalence is above 5%. Figures above 20% have been recorded at sites in 25 of these countries, and above 50% in 15 of them.

One in ten HIV/AIDS cases worldwide is attributed to injecting drug use and many of the national HIV epidemics outside sub-Saharan Africa are driven by unsafe drug-injecting practices. In much of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Southern cone of Latin America, the sharing of injecting equipment is the primary mode of HIV transmission.

Data on prevalence of HIV among IDUs remians patchy, especially for developing and transitional countries. This page presents statistics from a report which surveyed the available resources.

Prevalence of injecting drug use and HIV prevalence in injecting drug users, in selected countries

Country IDU Prevalence
(%)		 HIV Prevalence (%) in IDU
National Capital city Other sites
Argentina 0.17 18.8-39.2 7.6-80.0 60.0-61.0
Brazil 0.69 28.0-42.0 15.0-34.0 18.0-48.5
Bermuda & Caymans 4.93 - - -
Canada 0.61 14.5-47.9 7.1-23.5 1.1-41.0
China 0.23 0.0-80.0* - 1.0-84.0*
Estonia 2.05 13.0 41.0 -
France 0.26 13.6-19.3 - 13.7
India 0.21 1.3-68.4 44.5-45.0 2.0-81.0
Indonesia 0.42 15.0-47.0 14.9-40.0 16.0-56.0
Italy 0.64 10.0-65.6 - 0.6-32.8
Libya 0.23 0.5-59.4 - -
Malaysia 1.47 10.0-40.0 - 18.0
Myanmar 0.71 37.1-63.0 37-38.9 7.0-92.3
Poland 1.45 6.3-11.0 16.9 -
Portugal 0.45 13.6 8.3-41.3 0.0-37.0
Puerto Rico 0.59 - 42.4-55.2 -
Russia 1.96 0.8-4.8 0.12-28.3 0.0-64.5
Spain 1.06 15.2-66.5 - 1.3-48.3
United Kingdom 0.26 0.8 2.9-4.5 0.2-3.3
USA 0.67 - - 0.4-42.0

* Excluding Hong Kong and Macao

Around 25% of all injecting drug users live in South and South-east Asia, and a further 18% in East Asia. Each of China and India is home to more than a million IDUs. The world's highest rates of HIV infection among IDUs are found in Asia. By 1999, drug-dependent individuals comprised about 77% of HIV infections in Malaysia and 69% in China, and 66% of AIDS cases in Viet Nam.

A further 24% of injecting drug users are found in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. There are around 2 million in Russia, 397,000 in Ukraine and 174,000 in Kazakhstan. IDUs account for 82% of all HIV/AIDS cases in Central Europe and Former Soviet Union states.

North America and Latin America respectively account for 10.6% and 7.6% of injecting drug users. There are around 1.3 million in the USA, 800,000 in Brazil and 153,000 in Canada. Injecting drug use has caused about 20% of all adult HIV infections reported in the USA.1 In 2002, it was estimated that this same route accounted for 40% of new infections in Argentina and 28% in Uruguay.2

Around 9.4% of IDUs live in Western Europe, where popualtions above 200,000 exist in Germany, Italy and Spain. In 2002, a little more than 1 in 10 newly diagnosed HIV cases in Europe were caused by injecting drug use. However, in Portugal, this mode of transmission caused almost half the total HIV infections in 2002.3

AVERT.org has many pages of HIV & AIDS statistics which include more information about injecting drug use.

Sources

References

Last updated July 26, 2005

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