Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and HIV infection among drug users attending an STD/HIV prevention and needle-exchange program in Quebec City, Canada

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among inject ion and noninjection drug users in Quebec City and to identify associated r isk factors. Study Design: Cross-sectional study of 738 drug users attending a sexually transmitted disease/HIV prevention and needle-exchange program in Quebec Ci ty, Canada. Results: The prevalences of N. gonorrhoeae and C. trachomatis were, respect ively, 0.4% (95% CI: 0.08%-1.2%) and 3.4% (95% CI: 2.2%-5.0%). Through mult ivariate analysis, risk factors associated with sexually transmitted diseas es were: among women, being aged between 20 and 24 years and having unprote cted sex with commercial partners; in noninjection drug users; cocaine use and first intercourse before 13 years of age; in male noninjection drug use rs, having regular sexual partners in the previous 6 months. No case of HIV was found in participants who have never injected drugs, but the prevalenc e was 5.5% (6/110) among the exinjectors and 10.1% (35/347) in current inje ctors. Conclusion: Moderate sexually transmitted disease and HIV prevalences were found, although a high proportion of drug users reported risky behaviors. N eedle-exchange program sites may offer a good opportunity to provide sexual ly transmitted disease/HIV prevention and medical services to drug users.