HIV and Drug Abuse
HIV from Injection Drug Use
HIV from injection drug use (PWID) previously decreased 48% from 2008 to 2014 however saw an increase in 2015. Since then the downward trend returned, yet there are still thousands who have HIV from IDU .

Statistic Breakdown
In 2017, PWID accounted for 9% (3,641) of the 38,739 HIV diagnoses in the US. 2,389 were attributed to IDU, while 1,252 were attributed to MSM.
72% of those diagnoses were men and 28% were women.
29% were black, 45% were white, and 22% were Latino.
2018 Stats
In 2018 the CDC’s National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) system conducted interviews and HIV testing of 11,437 PWID (persons who inject drugs). Of those tested, 6% tested positive for HIV, 32% shared syringes, of the men 70% had MSM anal sex without a condom, and of the women 36% had sex in exchange for money or drugs. Only 55% of them had been tested for HIV.
13 million people inject drugs, and 1.7 million of them are living with HIV in the world. That accounts for 10% of people living HIV globally and 30% of those living with HIV outside of Africa.


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33,000 opioid-related deaths in the US in 2015
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Heroin use has gone up as other opioid use has gone down suggesting that prescription drug users are shifting to heroin
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Heroin caused 1,960 deaths in 1999 compared to 10,574 in 2014 and opioid deaths went from 4,030 to 18,893 in the same 15 years
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Opioid prescriptions tripled over the 20 years between 1991 to 2011 from 76 million to 219 million. Mexican heroin flooded the market and was cheaper, and easier to obtain so people flocked to it
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12 states had more opioid prescriptions than adults in 2012 now there is a stronger effort to hold the drug companies accountable
Opioids have been increasingly prescribed, particularly in the South and Midwest where there can be as many as 1.5 opioid prescriptions per person. This has direct correlations to heroin use as prescription users will often make the switch to heroin when their prescription gets discontinued.
The problem is further complicated because these areas with high opioid usage generally don’t have advanced HIV prevention programs available, and needle exchange programs are less prevalent.
Statistics on Opioids


Sources
https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/idu.html
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6410a3.htm
http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/idu/en/
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/24/health/opioid-deaths-cdc-report/index.html
https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/2.0_Drug_statistics_and_Trends.pdf
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-bad-is-the-opioid-epidemic/
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6326a2.htm?s_cid=mm6326a2_w
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/prescribing.html
https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-social-issues/key-affected-populations/people-inject-drugs
All graphics by Jaclyn Saik