RESEARCH ARTICLE Vulnerability to HIV infecti

ween 167 to 315 million people aged 15–64 (3.6 %- 6.9% of the world’s population in that age group) had used an years, there has been a rapid increase in female injecting drug users, especially in Asia and Eastern Europe [3,4]. In Ghimire et al. BMC Public Health 2013, 13:1238 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/12380.30 % in the adult population of 15 to 49 years. Out ofSchool of Public Health, Yoshida Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleillicit substance at least once in the previous year [1]. In the same report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated that about 14 million people inject drugs globally and of them 1.6 million (11.4%) are living with HIV. Countries with higher prevalence of HIV infection among people who inject drugs are located in Central Asia and the countries like China, India and Russia, drug use and sharing injection equipment is in-creasing rapidly among females, and in many regions more females are seeking harm reduction services and drug treatment [5,6]. In Nepal, the first case of HIV/AIDS was reported in 1988. As of 2011, national estimates indicated that ap-proximately 50,200 adults and children were infected with HIV, with an estimated overall HIV prevalence of * Correspondence