Medical care for injection-drug users with human immunodeficiency virus infection

Injection-drug use has become an important risk factor for infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and HIV infection has become well established among drug users in North America, Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia¹–³. In the United States, approximately 34 percent of all the cases of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in adults have occurred either in injection-drug users or in their sexual contacts. The proportion of the AIDS epidemic that is related to injection-drug use has increased steadily over the past decade,²,³ and it is particularly high among women and ethnic minorities³. In addition,.