Awareness of HIV/AIDS and risky sexual behaviour among male drug users of higher socioeconomic status in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Drug use is an alarming problem in Bangladesh. An estimated 1.7 million people are drug users in the country (1). Injecting drug users present a tremendous potential for an HIV epidemic due to their needle-sharing habits, while non-injecting drug users are also prone to spread/ receive HIV infection through their unsafe sexual behaviour. Several studies have reported needle/syringe-sharing habits and unsafe sexual behaviour among drug users of average socioeconomic status in Bangladesh (2,3). To our knowledge, a similar study on drug users of higher socioeconomic status in the country has not yet been conducted.