The HIV/AIDS epidemic among drug injectors in Eastern Europe: Patterns, trends and determinants

Our objective is to describe recent patterns and trends in HIV and injectin g drug use and to explore possible determinants of the epidemics in eastern Europe. The available data confirm a rapid spread of HIV among injecting d rug users (IDUs) in the newly independent states (NIS) and suggest that ail successor states of the former Soviet Union are now threatened by such epi demics, while central and southeast Europe have so far been spared from lar ge-scale outbreaks and seem at lower risk. The future course of the epidemi c in the NIS will largely depend on trends in drug injecting and on the suc cess of harm reduction programs. Furthermore, there is potential for the fu rther spread of HIV, via heterosexual intercourse, into the general populat ion.