BACKGROUND Injecting drug users are at increased risk for harmful effects compared to non-injecting drug users. Some studies have focused on differences in characteristics between these two groups (e.g., housing, overall health). However, no study has investigated the specific Dutch situation which in the last years has seen a decrease in homelessness among problematic hard-drug users and an in...

PROBLEM Illicit use of injected drugs is linked with high rates of HIV infection and fatal overdose, as well as community concerns about public drug use. Supervised injecting facilities have been proposed as a potential solution, but fears have been raised that they might encourage drug use. DESIGN A before and after study. Participants and setting 871 injecting drug users recruited from the ...

Aim: In the last decade, the prevalence of injecting drugs has been increasing rapidly. Injecting drug use puts one at the risk of risky behaviors that affect the health of individual and society. The present study aims at evaluating and comparing risky behaviors of injecting and non-injecting drug users. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 4400 addicts referred to public, priva...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Hepatitis C virus antiviral treatment is effective for individual patients but few active injecting drug users are treated. We considered the utility of antiviral treatment for primary prevention of hepatitis C. METHODS A hepatitis C transmission model among injecting drug users was developed, incorporating treatment (62.5% average sustained viral response) with no retreatme...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the incidence of HIV and hepatitis C virus and risk factors for seroconversion among a cohort of injecting drug users. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Primary healthcare facility in central Sydney. SUBJECTS Injecting drug users tested for HIV-1 antibody (n=1179) and antibodies to hepatitis C virus (n=1078) from February 1992 to October 1995. MAIN OUTCOM...

Approximately 10% of new HIV infections worldwide are attributable to injecting drug use, often of an opiate such as heroin. 1 Opioid substitution therapy supplies illicit drug users with a replacement drug, a prescribed medicine such as methadone or buprenorphine, which is usually administered orally in a supervised clinical setting. The effectiveness of this therapy is recognized in developed...

CONTEXT Accumulating data propose that active injecting drug users might not differ from the general population in terms of sustained virological response when adherent to therapy for chronic hepatitis C. However, current guidelines contain restrictive recommendations for therapy in this group of patients. OBJECTIVE Therefore, we evaluated a cohort of chronic hepatitis C patients regarding th...