This Guide was drafted by Ruth Birgin under the supervision of Monica Ciupagea of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) HIV/AIDS Section. Other staff of the HIV/AIDS Section played important roles, in particular Monica Beg, Fabienne Hariga and Zhannat Koshmukavedova. It was edited by Jeff Hoover. UNODC is grateful for the support of all others who assisted in the preparation of the Guide through contributions to its content and comments on drafts. The following were members of the working group assembled to help oversee the Guide: Jude Byrne, Judy Chang, Daria Ocheret and Cheryl White. Experts who were consulted on the drafts included Elie Al Aaraj, Edo Agustian, Eliot Ross Albers, Jamie Bridge, Allan Clear, Nick Crofts, Marcus Day, Ann Fordham, Olga Golichenko, John Kimani, Igor Kuzmenko, Olivier Maguet, Mags Maher, Maria Phelan, Fifa Rahman, Marie Anne Nathalie Rose, Olga Rychkova, Mat Southwell and Graciela Touze.
HIV has long been a high-level health threat among people who inject drugs (PWID). The joint UNODC/ WHO/UNAIDS/World Bank estimate for the number of PWID worldwide for 2013 is 12.19 million (range: 8.48–21.46 million). About 1.65 million of those individuals are estimated to be living with HIV, a figure that corresponds to 13.5 per cent of the world’s PWID being HIV-positive. That HIV prevalence level is several times greater than among the global general population and clearly indicates that the epidemic disproportionately affects PWID wherever they live. The risks and potentially devastating health consequences are even greater for women, who represent in many countries a growing share of all people who inject drugs. HIV and injecting drug use are an often-ignored combination among women. As a result, women who inject drugs (WID) have less access than men to harm reduction services, even where they are in place, and are more likely than their male counterparts to acquire HIV. Such discrepancies underscore the urgent need for improved efforts to better reach and support all WID.
