BACKGROUND Russia has one of the world's fastest growing HIV epidemics and it has been largely concentrated among injection drug users (IDU). St Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, is one of the country's regions that has been most affected by the HIV epidemic. To monitor the current epidemic situation, we sought to estimate recent HIV incidence among IDU in St Petersburg. METHODS In a ...

We report a case of Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis with late onset in a 39-year-old male drug abuser, who presented with bacterial meningitis. Despite resolution of the meningitis as the result of appropriate antimicrobial chemotherapy he developed triple valve endocarditis. Some striking features of this case and a comparison with other reported cases of this uncommon presentation of infec...

Abnormal mediastinal air may be caused by inhalational illicit drug use subsequent to barotrauma resulting from coughing after deep inhalation and breath holding. It may also arise from oesophageal rupture due to retching after ingestion of the illicit drug. The history can alert the practitioner to this cause of chest pain. As chest radiographs are widely accessible and mediastinal air is easi...

BACKGROUND Barriers to HIV treatment among injection drug users (IDU) are a major public health concern. However, there remain few long-term studies investigating key demographic and behavioral factors--and gender differences in particular--that may pose barriers to antiretroviral therapy (ART), especially in settings with universal healthcare. We evaluated access and adherence to ART in a long...

BACKGROUND The epidemic of HIV/AIDS and treatments that have emerged to alleviate, have brought about a shift in the burden of disease from death to quality of life/disability. The aim was to determine which factors are associated with improvements in the level of health of male and female patients with HIV/AIDS in Andalusia, in terms of disability-adjusted life years. METHODS Descriptive stu...

OBJECTIVES HIV/AIDS risk is embodied within multiple levels including structural and social levels. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of neighbourhood characteristics on HIV prevalence among injection drug users (IDU) residing in the area of Tallinn, Estonia in 2007. METHODS A cross-sectional, multilevel design collecting individual-level data--a behaviour survey including data ...

Pseudoaneurysms of the subclavian artery are extremely rare lesions despite the overall increase in the frequency of septic pseudoaneurysms caused by illicit parenteral drug abuse. A case of subclavian artery pseudoaneurysm presenting with Horner's syndrome in an intravenous drug user is discussed.

INTRODUCTION Injecting drug use (IDU) is associated with tuberculosis but few data are available from low-income settings. We examined IDU in relation to active and latent tuberculosis (LTBI) among HIV-positive individuals in Indonesia, which has a high burden of tuberculosis and a rapidly growing HIV epidemic strongly driven by IDU. METHODS Active tuberculosis was measured prospectively amon...

A 45 year old man, intravenous drug user, without history of systemic illness, presented with fever, chills and an anterior left thorax pulsatile mass. Echocardiogram showed an anterior mediastinal fluid collection with no apparent pericardial communication and without evidence of endocarditis. Chest tomography revealed a large left anterior mediastinal abscess with multiple pulmonary abscesses...

Between October and December 2005, 16 cases of wound botulism were notified to the health authorities of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. All patients were injecting drug users (IDU) and the epidemiological investigations suggested contaminated injection drugs as the most probable source of infection. Clostridium botulinum was cultivated from clinical samples of six patients and molecular typin...