INCREASING EPIDEMICS OF HIV INFECTION IN IDUs IN

Injection drug use represents the riskfactor for human immunodeficiencyvirus (HIV) infection for the minority of worldwide HIV disease.1 In contrast, injection drug use in developed countries accounts for between 30 % and 60 % of the HIV infected population.1 Much of the published HIV literature focuses on large randomised clinical trials of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimens, potential adverse reactions from HAART, and the basic science of HIV infection. There is generally a paucity of research focusing exclusively on injecting drug users (IDUs). A litera-ture review was undertaken to review published data from 1999 to 2001, focus-ing on articles that directly relate to IDUs and HIV infection. Most of the derived data relate to the following areas: (1) Increasing epidemics of HIV infec-tion in IDUs in developing countries (2) Improving access to care for IDUs (3) Co-infection with hepatitis C virus (4) Pharmacokinetic interactions be-tween antiretrovirals and methadone