Injection Drug Use Helps Drive HIV/AIDS in Africa

April 29, 2011

Injection drug use has long been a driving factor in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. But now, there are signs it’s a growing problem in sub-Saharan Africa, as well.

The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS, sent a team to Kenya and Tanzania to study the relationship between injection drugs and HIV / AIDS.

“Globally, we know that it is quite a serious problem. And we know that one in every three new infections is attributable to injecting drug use. We know that in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the former Soviet Union, it continues to be the major driver of the epidemic there. What we’re seeing happen on a parallel track is that in many countries, where the new HIV incidence is starting to stabilize and level off, that the proportion of IDU-related infections is continuing to increase,” said CSIS team member Lisa Carty, who co-wrote a report on the problem. Carty is deputy director at the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS.

“I think the whole question of injecting drug use and HIV prevention has been one that’s really been under resourced and not really paid adequate attention to, either from a policy or a programmatic point of view,” she said.

White heroin

The report said, “While it’s clear the number of people injecting drugs is large and growing, the kind of epidemiological data needed for planning and implementing effective prevention and treatment programs remain uncertain.” Epidemiology is the who, what, when, where, why and how of the matter.