OBJECTIVE The HIV/AIDS burden in Israel is increasing. This study aims to describe the nationwide-HIV epidemiology in the last 30 years and highlight areas of concern in HIV/AIDS control. DESIGN Descriptive study. SETTING The National HIV/AIDS Registry in Israel. PARTICIPANTS All individuals who were reported with HIV/AIDS in Israel. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES Classification of HIV/AIDS c...

The presentation of fever in an intravenous drug user prompts diagnostic testing targeted at identifying infectious etiologies. However, an alternate diagnosis exists in "cotton fever." While few reports describe this phenomenon in the peer-reviewed literature, the diagnosis is well recognized among the intravenous drug user community. Although its etiology is not well understood, cotton fever ...

HIV/AIDS epidemic was widespread.1 Some believed all Asians to have a natural resistance to HIV infection.1 Others referred to traditional Asian morality: ‘Our younger generation still practice virginity until their nuptial day. The religious customs ... are protection against many social evils. It will be difficult even for HIV to penetrate this shield’, Dr K Abhyambika, AIDS Programme Officer...

INTRODUCTION Cutaneous injection-related infections (CIRI) are a primary reason injection drug users (IDU) access the emergency department (ED). METHODOLOGY Using Cox proportional hazard regression, we examined predictors of ED use for CIRI, stratified by sex, among 1083 supervised injection facility (SIF) users. RESULTS Over a four-year period, 289 (27%) visited the ED for CIRI, yielding a...

Sex partnerships with injection drug users (IDU) are an understudied network-level risk factor for heterosexual HIV infection. Heterosexuals with no history of injection were recruited from high-risk areas in New York City through respondent-driven sampling. We examined the prevalence of IDU sex partnerships among these non-IDU, the factors associated with having a past year IDU partner, and th...

BACKGROUND The long average incubation time from HIV infection to AIDS makes it difficult to estimate recent HIV transmission from AIDS incidence data. Age-period-cohort (APC) analysis can separate out the effects of age, calendar time and birth cohort to provide a clearer picture of transmission trends. METHODS AIDS incidence data from 1981 to 1994 among intravenous drug users (IDU) for 12 W...

BACKGROUND Unsafe injection practices play a major role in elevated rates of morbidity and mortality among people who inject drugs (IDU). There is growing interest in the direct involvement of IDU in interventions that seek to address unsafe injecting. This study describes a drug user-led safer injecting education campaign, and explores facilitators' experiences delivering educational workshops...

BACKGROUND Although syringe distribution is effective in preventing HIV transmission among injecting drug users (IDUs), there is little evidence on the required coverage to substantially reduce HIV transmission. METHODS A mathematical model is developed to explore the relationship between the endemic HIV prevalence among IDUs and the coverage of syringe distribution. Data from IDU populations...

BACKGROUND There is little understanding about how the social networks of cocaine injectors are different from those of heroin users and about how such differences are associated with injection risk behaviours. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare drug-injecting network characteristics of cocaine and heroin injectors believed to be associated with a risk of bloodborne infection...

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) pandemic is currently in its third decade and approximately 35 million people are infected worldwide. HIV-1 genetic variability results in 9 phylogenetic subtypes and several circulating recombinant forms (CRFs). In Italy, the first phase of the HIV epidemic was mainly confined to the intravenous drug users (IDU) risk group, moreover most studies ...