Mitigating the risk of HIV infection with opioid substitution treatment.

Abstract

Injecting drug use is a major risk factor for the acquisition and transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and accounts for approximately 5 to 10% of all cases of HIV infection in the world. People who inject drugs are vulnerable to infection with HIV and other blood-borne viruses, predomi-nantly as a result of the collective use of injecting equipment and, to a lesser extent, of unprotected sexual behaviour.