Jk. Watters et al., TOWARD COMPREHENSIVE STUDIES OF HIV IN INJECTION-DRUG USERS - ISSUES IN TREATMENT-BASED AND STREET-BASED SAMPLES, Substance use & misuse, 32(12-13), 1997, pp. 1709-1714
In the United States, the majority of research and surveillance effort
s on the role of injection drug users (IDU) in the transmission of hum
an immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) have focused on convenience samples
of IDUs enrolled in drug user treatment programs. These samples exclud
e IDUs who are primarily injecting non-opiates and IDUs who are not or
iented to entering drug user treatment. IDUs in treatment differ signi
ficantly from IDUs who do not enter treatment. This underscores the im
portance of sampling IDUs not in treatment.