A global picture of injecting drug use, HIV and anti-HCV prevalence among people who inject drugs, and coverage of harm reduction interventions
A global picture of injecting drug use, HIV and anti-HCV prevalence among people who inject drugs, and coverage of harm reduction interventions
Dr Sarah Larney, NDARC
Understanding how many people inject drugs is critically important for the effective provision of public health and harm reduction services. However, the severe stigma that is often attached to injecting drug use, and illicit nature of this behaviour, means that it is often difficult to have a clear picture of how many people inject drugs in a given nation or region.1 Without this basic population number, it is also difficult to know how many people who inject drugs are living with HIV or hepatitis C virus (HCV), or to know how well HIV and HCV prevention interventions such as needle and syringe programs and opioid substitution therapy are reaching people in need. (NDARC – National Drug and Alcohol Reaerch Centre, Australien, Dezember 2017)