By Matt McGrath
Science reporter, BBC News
The rate of HIV infection among injecting drug users appears to be rising, researchers say.
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Cricketer in India doping scandal ... report, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, says 3m self-injecting drug users worldwide could now be HIV-positive.
In nine countries, more that 40% of drug users were infected.
The authors are concerned about the lack of data from Africa and say the risk factors that have helped spread HIV in this way exist on the continent.
The scientists behind this study carried out a wide-ranging review of published data.
They concluded that both the numbers of injecting drug users and the prevalence of HIV infection among them are on the increase.
Needle exchange
The virus is spread mainly by the use of shared needles.
In some countries in South East Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe the rates of infection among injecting users are above 40%. In Estonia it is more than 72%.
But some countries have maintained very low rates of infection, such as Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia where only 1.5% of injecting drug users are HIV-positive.
Researchers say that this was due to the swift introduction of needle exchange programmes in the 1980s.
The report says that there is a clear mandate to invest in HIV prevention programmes such as needle exchanges and drug substitution treatments.
There is also a clear need for education to help prevent the spread of infection in countries where injecting drug use is common but where the virus has not yet become widespread among users.
"The high prevalence of HIV among many populations of injecting drug users represents a substantial global health challenge," the authors say.
(BBC)
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